Family History
by lilaclily00
Summary: John and Matt, because of a friend, watched Fullmetal Alchemist... And found out something that changes everything. Now, they're struggling with whether to pretend it never happened or embrace it. Their decision determines whether someone lives... or if THEY live. Modern AU, in a way? This is written assuming you have knowledge of CoS and FMA:B.
1. Chapter 1

**Okay, I know I tend to make long, unnecessary commentary ANs on my works. Just read the ANs for this first chapter because it's important for you to know what the heck is going on. After that, I promise you can just skip all the bolded stuff. Okay? :3**

**My second and third fanfics ever, _Ed the Cat _and _Al the Cat_ (I've seriously seen at least 3 or 4 more fics after mine about Ed turning into a cat. Guess I'm not as creative as I thought. XD) of course made me really proud, but what annoys and saddens me so is that I didn't finish them. I really wanted to keep writing them, but the moment I got to as far as my mind had come up with... I totally blanked. Didn't help that then we started getting ready to move and stuff.**

**So, then I read more fics after that and saw that some authors (like Griselda Banks, who's one of my faves ever) always _finished _their stories before posting. I decided I wanted to do that. So, here's a story I worked on for a while and finished! :D *noisemakers blaring***

**This came about because I had been hearing a lot about doing family history/genealogy work, which I _know _I should do, but haven't been able to do much in because I know literally nothing about my ancestors. :I Also, I'd been seeing modern AUs. You know, where someone plopped Ed and Al into the real world? Suddenly, this baby was born. (I'm referring to this story, not some random baby in the world. XD)**

**The chapters were originally _half _the size I'm posting, but then my final chapter ended up waaaaaay too long in comparison. So, chapter one is technically chapter one and two, chapter two is technically chapter three and four, and so on.**

**I feel like everything probably happens way too fast, but oh well. Also, if pure dialogue annoys you, leave now. I like to reveal everything through people talking.**

**On with the story!**

* * *

John Edward Elric and Matt Alphonse Elric sat together during lunch every day. It was just a week or two since the new school year had started. They ate in a comfortable silence until a girl with long, dark hair walked up to them, somehow looking shy yet like an over-excitable puppy at the same time.

"Hi!"

"Hi..." they both responded, a little caught off-guard.

"Your name is Al, right?" She pointed to the younger brother.

"Yeah."

"I'm in the same Chemistry class as you."

"Oh yeah! ...Lily?" She nodded to confirm that he got her name right. "This is my older brother Ed." He pointed his sandwich to the boy sitting across from him, who raised a hand and mumbled "Sup" in-between bites.

"How may I help you?" Al asked the girl politely.

"Um, I noticed that you had some anime stickers and such on your things." Now her shyness was starting to show again.

"Oh yeah, I'm a big fan." He grinned. She grinned back, then looked over to Ed.

"Eh, I watch some with him if I'm bored," he shrugged.

"What's your favorite manga or anime?" Lily questioned as she pushed her glasses up on her nose.

"I like too many to pick a favorite!" Al giggled.

"My favorite of all time is _Fullmetal Alchemist_!" she boasted.

"I've heard of that one, but haven't watched it yet."

"You need to!"

The brothers glanced to each other, both feeling a bit wary of the girl.

"...Alright, I will when I can."

"It's on Netflix!" she called over her shoulder as she started to walk away quickly.

"So, that girl came over here just to tell you to watch a certain show?" Ed asked once Lily was gone.

"Yup."

"People of your generation are so weird." He shook his head.

Al raised a brow. "Can you really say that, Brother? You are only a year older than me."

"One and a _half,_" he corrected, as if that really made a difference.

* * *

The brothers sat down to watch the first episode about an hour after they got home that day. Once they connected the family laptop to the living room TV, Al searched for the show on Netflix.

"Brother, there's two: _Fullmetal Alchemist_ and _Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood_. Which one should I play?"

"Well, that girl just said 'Fullmetal Alchemist,' so I guess the first." Ed shrugged as he opened up a bag with munchies.

"Hey, put that away!" the younger scolded as he clicked on the screen.

"Why?"

"I won't hear anything! You are a loud chewer!"

His brother have him a blank face in response.

"Chucks for you! Just put on subtitles!" He stuffed his face noisily while lightly glaring at Al. "Jeez, you have a problem. Maybe you shouldn't watch these shows."

"But I love them too much! Please don't take them away!" he pleaded as he plopped down onto the couch again, now turning to his brother with his best puppy-dog face.

"...Fine." He never could withstand that face without giving in.

"I love you, Brother," he grinned/smirked as the episode started.

"Shut up."

"I think I understand more why Lily wanted us to watch this."

"So many coincidences!" they blurted simultaneously.

"The biggest one being that the main characters have the same names as us."

"We just have John and Matt in front of ours."

"Who were we named after again?"

"Edward comes from our... great...great-grandpa, I think." The older sibling dug deep into his memory. "Or was it great-great-GREAT-grandpa?... No, just two greats."

"And Alphonse was his brother." Al nodded.

It had become a family tradition to name children after past relatives, but at a point the names became too outdated, so it was agreed the names could be middle names instead. As compensation, their parents had given them extremely common first names, causing confusion in classrooms when there were other Johns and Matts, so people began to refer to them by their middle names, then shortened those names to fit better in modern society.

"And as far as I know, most of our family has light hair. That's just how it works in some Caucasian bloodlines," Ed grumbled while staring at his blonde hair, Al trying to do the same with his light brown hair, but it was too short.

"Of course there's other similarities, but there's no point in listing them out loud as if explaining them to someone else." Oh, hehe, they don't realize I'm writing their whole conversation down for the world to read... No point in stopping now.

"Do you want to watch some more?"

"I don't want to, just because it's getting creepy, but at the same time that makes me want to watch even more..."

They stared at the TV for a few seconds. Silently, they both reached for the computer mouse to put on the next episode.

* * *

The Elrics finished the whole 2003 series and movie in one week. (They would have done it faster, but stupid school and sleep used too much of their time.) They were so drawn in, Ed even stopped snacking so he could focus more. Al gave a short scream when they showed what Alphonse looked like before for the first time, as his brother had explained earlier that Alphonse might be his anime doppelganger, just as Edward was his (minus his eyes; Ed's were brown, not gold). And he was _right_.

Of course, Lily later admitted to them that she recommends _Fullmetal Alchemist_ to just about everyone, but thought it was awesome that Al's name was, well, Al; it had really motivated her to talk to him, since he had the same nickname as her favorite character. She had not even known his real name, or any of the other things they listed as she ate with them during lunch. Her eyes got wider and wider as the similarities piled up.

"...Dang..." she breathed once they finished.

"Yeah."

"But since the series is set in the early 1900's...You said you were named after your great-great-grandpa, right? Try looking him up."

The brothers stared at her, a little lost. She continued, the voice now squeaking a bit in embarrassment.

"There's sites for that, like FamilySearch... It's worth a shot... There's nothing to lose... What if you found out you were directly related to Edward and Alphonse Elric?!" The last sentence suddenly made her excited.

"I don't have the time," Ed refused immediately, taking a long sip of his drink.

"Yet you had the time to watch anime?" she asked in monotone.

"You can't believe that the Elrics are real people?... It feels like I'm talking about myself..." Al said the second part more to himself than the others.

"I'm sorry, but I'm curious. History interests me anyways, so even if we didn't get any results that we wanted, I'd get to find out about other old people!"

"Oh, joy." Ed rolled his eyes. "That is definitely something high-schoolers do often."

"Would you rather I smoked and drank at parties every night while I was pregnant with a baby that probably already has STDs and a disorder or two due to the daily weed and other drugs I snort that grows in quantity constantly so I can get the same high all the time?"

"..."

"Exactly."

"..." Both boys looked at each other as she started to stand up, mumbling something about throwing away her tray.

"She said all of that in one breath... Did she plan that sentence beforehand or something?..." Al poked his food. His brother scoffed.

"I bet she's one of those people that gets called weird and responds with 'thank you.'" Ed decided to test his theory when Lily came back.

"You are the weirdest person I have ever met," he stated, looking straight into her eyes. She blinked.

"Thank you! That means a lot," she chirped happily. Both her and Al laughed a little while Ed facepalmed.

"Of course you are THAT kind of person! We shouldn't listen to anything you say! Why did we in the first place?! Come on, Al, let's go." He pulled his backpack up onto his shoulder and dragged the rest of his stuff that was on the table away.

Her big brown eyes followed him as he left. "...Well, that was rude."

"I think it's because you remind him- well, us- of one of our old friends," Al explained to her. "I'm not sure what happened between them, but it caused my brother to rant around the house with extremely colorful language for a few days. Being the stubborn idiot he is, he refused to listen to any apology or anything, so he is still sticking with a negative opinion of said friend." He finished cleaning up the table and went off to chase down his older sibling with a sigh, leaving Lily to ponder on what's been said, then deciding to switch the topic in her brain to cats, which reminds her of Alphonse Elric, which reminds her of cats, which reminds her of Alphonse Elric... (It's a vicious cycle.)

* * *

While it was a weird idea indeed, and most likely just going to prove that _Fullmetal Alchemist_ is just a story, the temptation grew in Al until he gave in and tried looking for Edward Elric on a genealogy site. When he got no results there, he just tried a different website. This continued for some time until he fell out of his chair.

Why?

He found records of a supposed fictional character.

While there wasn't much, there was a black-and-white photo of him with some of the German rocket scientists shown in _Conqueror of Shamballa_ posing together in front of their creation. He studied the picture very carefully, and found it looked very real. No cosplay or Photoshop.

He stared at the picture, his jaw slack. He could barely think. And when he finally could, his first thought was to show it to his brother.

"BROTHER!" he shouted. When a few seconds passed by without response, he tried again. "BROTHER!" When that didn't work...

"MOM!"

"What?" she replied at his door. She had only been in the next room over.

"Where's John?"

"I think he's just in his room, doing his homework. Maybe he didn't hear because of his headphones."

"Right. Thank you."

Too lazy to get up and drag his stubborn sibling to the laptop or to bring the laptop to him, he instead decided to send him the link. Being careful to not let the URL show on the e-mail, he thought about what to make the explanation. Ed wouldn't look at it if he truthfully said what it was for, so he settled for:

'Look! They classified Pluto as a planet again!' (Ed is a bit of a space nerd.)

With a click of a button, it was sent. A few minutes later, he heard "WHAT?!" come from some other part of the house, then something large falling to the floor.

With satisfaction in knowing his brother so well, he sent the link to Lily through Facebook (because he never asked for her e-mail address, assuming she would think that was a way-outdated mode of communication) before walking away to check on Ed. He's probably just fine, though; his head is literally thick.

* * *

**So, there's the beginning! :D Have I piqued your interest? At least a little? I hope? ;-;**

**I find it so funny that I'd written that thing about Pluto a few months before they _actually did that. _XD**

**I NEVER LIKED PLUTO IT DOESN'T DESERVE TO BE A PLANET *runs away from everyone because I'm a Pluto hater***

**I'm a supporter of e-mail! LONG LIVE THE GMAIL!**

**Also, because I'm awesome like that, at the end of all chaps, there's gonna be something extra. Sometimes character profiles, sometimes a continuation of something in the story that isn't really important but amusing, or... something else. *shrug***

**K bai!**

* * *

Elric Brothers: _Are mistaken all the time to be the same age, although there is about 1.5 years of a difference. Everyone at school knows they have 4.0 averages, but since they don't participate in school sports, few know just how athletic they are. Both seem to be oblivious to the fact that many girls (maybe some guys too) find them quite attractive. They are comparable to Hikaru and Kaoru before they joined the OHSHC, although not as antisocial._

John Edward Elric, _AKA_ Ed: _16 years old, in 11__th_ _grade. Has light brown eyes and blond hair. His haircut is similar to Roy Mustang's. (He has been attempting to grow it out of that ever since Lily pointed this out, but his hair grows as slowly as the rest of his body.) He has quite the temper, dishes out the rude comments without a second thought, and becomes violent if an insult is thrown at him. This is why he has such a hard time making friends, having to rely on his brother to make friends for him. He has always been far too occupied with his own interests to gawk at girls. He has incredible focus and determination. He is a great guy once you get to know him- he might even help you with your chemistry homework without complaining about your stupidity- unless he doesn't like you. He loves his red and black headphones. __Die Hard_ _is his favorite movie._ "Brains or brawn? Psh, I've got both." "I highly suggest you rethink offending me- or my brother- anytime in the future."

Matt Alphonse Elric, _AKA_ Al: _15 years old, in 10__th_ _grade. Has gray eyes and light brown, almost blond, hair. Keeps his hair short with a side part. He is taller and more slender than his older sibling. His positive attitude and politeness make him a favorite among teachers and other adults. Few have made him mad enough to have to face his wrath, which is just as terrifying as his brother's, maybe a degree more. He shows his darker side most often with his immediate family. It's much easier for him to be friendly to people, not driving them away like a certain someone. Ever since he was little, he called both of his siblings "Brother" and "Sister", the former still sticking to him, possibly for the rest of his life, while the latter was thrown out when the youngest Elric threatened him with a very menacing-looking fork to stop doing that and call her "Megan" like everyone else._ "When you're with one of us, you're stuck with the other too. Brother and I were basically made for each other." "BROTHER!"

Lily: _15 years old, in 10__th_ _grade. Has very dark, large brown eyes and hair. Her waist-length hair is curly (and slightly frizzy, sadly), and is usually down. She wears glasses almost 24/7. She has an interesting taste in fashion, mostly wearing skinny jeans or leggings with a shirt, which ranges from a flowery, frilly, feminine top to an oversized men's T-shirt. She also loves wearing hats (or her BMO headphones), but has few opportunities to wear them due to dress code and/or weather. She is a tomboy, yet very girly; innocent and giggly, yet can be creepy on a whim. She makes friends almost TOO easily, and can make just about anyone laugh. She is actually quite introverted at times, sometimes sitting by herself on purpose during lunch to listen to music or read a book in peace, and almost never goes out to events unless forced to. Her favorite manga of all time is __Fullmetal Alchemist__, and by extension, both of the animes and __Conqueror of Shamballa_ _movie. Her favorite character of all time is Alphonse Elric._ "Everyone is weird in their own special way." "Cats are life. So is sushi."


	2. Chapter 2

**Guess I should change the summary so it's not so vague. XD Not really bringing any customers. I just don't really know what to put otherwise that won't say too much. I mean, I don't want to reveal the whole thing! This story isn't really that long! *sweat drop***

**Fun fact: the pic for this was supposed to just be a rough sketch for the _real _pic... but I was too lazy to make a nicer version. While it's a bit messy, I'm pretty pleased with this, so it doesn't matter. From left to right, it's Al, Ed, then Lily. ;3**

**Remember: John Edward Elric and Matt Alphonse Elric. I mainly refer to them as Ed and Al, so make sure you know John is Ed, and Matt is Al.**

**On with the story!**

* * *

"Are you serious?!" Ed growled at his little brother, who was now pretty red-faced.

"Yes..."

"Why did you TELL people about this?!"

"Because it is something incredible, is it not?" Al defended himself.

"But now your friends probably all think you are crazy!"

"Slightly."

"Never mind, you ARE crazy! My brother is crazy! What will I do with my life?" he exclaimed dramatically before facepalming.

"Oh hey, Al." Lily interrupted their conversation with her entrance. "I wanted to thank you for finding that link! I am just so amazed by it! I nearly screamed when I opened it!" Ed started fuming at his brother again.

"I can't believe I fell for that stupid Pluto thing!" He bit into his sandwich violently.

"That's your own fault, Brother, not mine," Al chuckled.

"So what are you guys gonna do now?" she asked.

"...I don't know. What _are_ we gonna do?" the younger brother said to the older.

"Leave it alone!"

"What?! We just found out someone fake is actually real, and RELATED to us, and we are just going to leave it alone?!"

"Yes! This is stupid, and there's nothing we can do with this information!"

"Except maybe figure out more about what they did with their lives after _Conqueror of Shamballa_? Learn what you'll look like when you're an old guy? We could maybe practice transmutation circles? We could become famous in the FMA community!" Lily listed.

"We should get out of this before we become obsessed!" Ed hissed.

"I think it's too late for that," she mused, mainly to herself.

"Hey." Some guy they all faintly recognized came up to the table. "You are the Elrics, right?"

"Yeah. What of it?" Ed huffed.

"I heard that you guys thought some stupid TV character is real." He gave a gross smirk.

"Where'd you hear that?" Ed asked with sincere curiosity. Rumors never spread about them, much less so quickly. The stranger ignored the question.

"That makes me wonder if you are all so nerdy it's affecting your sanity."

"We aren't nerds!" he spat out angrily.

"What am I supposed to think? You all have the highest scores in our grades, plus take all the advanced classes. You probably also do something stupid like orchestra or debate team, and now you also are anime geeks? You are nerds in more than one way!" He threw his arms up as if in exasperation.

"Hey!" Lily stood up quickly. "I don't take advanced classes or extracurricular activities! Don't stick me into the nerd category!" She sat back down, folding her arms up and pouting aggressively. The brothers and bully stared at her blankly.

"_That's_ the part that upsets you?" Al questioned.

"That's the part I'm willing to defend against." She shrugged.

* * *

The trio, over the next few days, heard snickering in the halls. Lily, being pretty oblivious about this sort of thing, did not notice until she picked up some of the current gossip being spread between girls in one of her classes, not worrying until they put the brothers' names and swear words in the same sentence.

She saw both of them in the halls between periods at times, Matt seeming to be more in a hurry to get to his classes, and John seeming more ticked off than usual, as expected. She was lucky enough that no one started to bother her about it, since people generally were putting more of the blame on her new friends, but she was worried about how the brothers would be faring in this time of trial.

It became clear how much it bothered them the next time they met up.

_"We are going to stuff everyone's words back into their mouths so hard they are going to choke."_ Ed sounded like Kira before writing down names into the DeathNote.

"Oh geeznits..." Lily blurted in surprise.

"There's been a butthole or two that have said things to my face that even I'm not willing to repeat," he explained to her.

"That stupid little piece of information has turned into the most bizarre rumors." Al gulped.

"Are your friends really that horrible?" she asked in shock.

"I'm friends with really nice, awesome people, like you, so I know they didn't." He said, and she mouthed 'Oh stop it, you' after being complimented. "But they were being kinda loud when I first said something, so I'm guessing someone out of the group had overheard it and told others."

"That makes sense." She nodded.

"These people are so lucky that I could get suspended if I punched them. Otherwise, I would make their lives hell," Ed muttered dangerously.

"The things you could do could get you sent to juvy." Al corrected.

"I'm so glad you guys like me..." Lily laughed nervously.

"I don't know, I'm not such a big fan of you." Ed glanced over to her.

"Thanks. That was _such_ a self-esteem booster," she responded sarcastically. "Anyways, since you CAN'T punch without punishment, what do you want to do back? ...Not that you should, I just doubt I could convince you not to."

"Prove we are right."

"We are going to convince people we aren't insane in the membrane?"

"How do we do that without looking even crazier?" Al asked.

"Very carefully." He nodded to himself.

* * *

Matt, for once, didn't really focus in his mixed martial arts class. Though few in the high school knew, both him and his older brother were experts in more than one style of kicking butt. Al was a 2nd degree black belt, while Ed was one belt away from the same title; alternately, Ed usually had scores at 100% in school while his younger sibling had 99%. Of course, they both were still geniuses.

He was sparring with one of the other students, and since his mind wasn't really set on the task at hand, he accidentally let himself get punched in the stomach.

"MR. ELRIC! You could have blocked that so easily!" Sensei roared.

"Sorry, Sensei," Al called back.

"You are so much better than that, Mr. Elric!"

"I know, Sensei. I'll do better."

"Please don't do better!" whispered the boy he was fighting. "You are hard enough to spar as it is!"

"Sorry, Garrett." He shrugged a little while silently chuckling.

"Switch with... Edward."

"Hai!" Both brothers yelled and John walked onto the mat as Garrett walked off of it, going to sit next to his friends, where they most likely started to congratulate him for managing a hit on the almighty Al.

"Begin!" shouted the instructor, and Ed immediately made the first move. Even when he wasn't concentrating, Matt's limbs flew out precisely. However, Ed was more focused, so he was doing a great job too.

"What's up, Al?" he questioned calmly about a minute into the spar as they continued.

"I've just been thinking about our great-great-grandpa."

"Understandable, although right now is not the best moment."

Al blinked slowly. "...Sorry, what'd you say again?"

Ed huffed in annoyance as he slapped his brother on the cheek to snap him back to reality.

"OOOOH!" yelled a few of the students.

"Ah, shaddup!" grumbled John over his shoulder as he blocked from a kick.

"Thanks, Brother!" Al chirped cheerfully as the slap worked its magic into keeping him in the present.

"_...What?" "Is he being sarcastic or serious?" "How can they have a conversation during a spar as intense as that one?" "Those guys are so weird..." "I think you mean awesome!" "They're just showing off."_ These were just some of the whispers spreading around the room.

"Hey, give me a moment." Al backed away a few steps so he could scratch his leg in peace. Of course, that wasn't all he wanted to do. Before anyone realized what happened, he had done a front flip and kicked down his brother as he landed. He finished with pinning Ed to the ground like they were wrestling. Sensei came over and slapped the mat three times before whistling and signalling that the spar was over.

"WHAT THE HECK? WE ARE NOT WRESTLING, AL!"

"I'm allowed to add in other styles when it's against you, Brother." He smirked just big enough for his sibling to see it.

"Really?" Ed looked over to his teacher with slight disbelief.

"That is correct, Edward. Now don't you feel special?"

"But I still haven't managed to beat him! Why are you making it even more difficult?!" he yelled, not bothering to spit it out with respect.

"You should take challenges happily, Edward, just like your brother here. They make you grow; right, Mr. Elric?"

"Hai!" Al said innocently.

"Maybe you'll grow a few inches, Ed!" blurted some little kid sitting down in the sidelines.

"Zip it, brat!" growled John.

"Edward!" complained/teased Al.

"Don't call me that, ALPHONSE!"

"Sensei does it!"

"Because he'd beat me up if I told him he couldn't!"

"He's not like that!"

"Not to someone as SENSITIVE as you!"

The bantering continued for a while, gradually increasing in accusations, insults, and volume, which started the fight all over again, and the other students got the first glimpse of what it's like when the siblings are mad at each other. It was horrific. But Al won in the end, as usual.

* * *

Once the battle was over, and it was time for the class to end, Sensei yelled at both brothers to go home and not fight like 5-year olds (or more like MMA champion 5-year olds) again, sounding dead serious. However, as Al was mopingly putting on his shoes, the older man whispered to him when Ed wasn't looking.

"What was said at the start of the fight, Mr. Elric?" Al looked surprised and a little confused at the question.

"I guess it was when I called him by his middle name, Sensei."

"Further."

"...When he yelled about me wrestling in a dojo?"

"Further. In the spar."

"...Brother asked me what I was thinking about, and I said our great-great-grandpa."

"That's what I thought you said." Sensei's face lit up. "May I ask his name?"

"Edward Elric. That's whom Ed was named after."

"I would like to talk to you and your brother next week before class, if that's okay with you."

"Um, sure, Sensei..."

The Elrics left the building, Ed slightly ticked when his younger sibling told him their teacher plans to have a talk, and Al feeling just plain confused.

Meanwhile, Sensei had gone to his old photo albums once he got the chance.

* * *

**In case you were wondering- yes, this is pretty much a self-insert fic. XD Notice, though, that I'm not actually the main character! True, I'm not a secondary character, but it's not focused on _me, _which I feel is more realistic. I mean, my life can get a little cray-cray, but I don't really focus on myself, I really focus on other people more. I think.**

**Of course, this means that whatever Lily does and says, that's what I imagine I would do in that situation... or maybe what I _wish _I'd do. I'm warning ya now, Lily ends up kinda overreacting to stuff later, but I seriously think I'd do the same. Maybe not _quite _as exaggerated in actual actions, but certainly in my head I'd be flipping out the same amount as her.**

**For some reason, I love when Ed and Al (either mine or the originals) argue. So, I ended up continuing their argument. Where this extra ends- _that's _when they start beating each other up. :3**

**K bai!**

* * *

"Sensitive?! You are the one that bites heads off when your height is pointed out!"

"Do I not have a right to be annoyed that my younger brother is taller than me?!"

"We are almost the same age! At least it's just a one-year difference, although I'm sure that there's a kindergartner out there in the world who could beat you in inches!"

"You might as well be a kindergartner, if we discuss how immature you are!"

"Most would call me mature, considering I constantly have to babysit you!"

"I don't need a babysitter!"

"Then why do I have to keep you out of trouble all the time?"

"Because you are no fun, you Goody-Two-Shoes!"

"I thought what you called 'fun' was memorizing the Periodic Table of Elements!"

"Better than geeking out on anime!"

"At least with anime I can find friends! There is a whole community of people with the same interest! The only people who think that chemicals are cool are psychos, old farts, or psycho old farts!"

"Don't know why you're talking about scientists all being psychos, when geeks are totally insane!"

"Are you calling me insane?! I'm the sane brother in this family!"

"There's a difference between being sane and just acting it!"

"Another skill I have- you can't act, no matter what you think."

"I'm a great liar, and lying is the same as acting! Therefore, I'm great at acting!"

"I'm sure you have gained the respect of _all_ the spectators here by saying that you are a great liar! And while I'll admit you've gotten me before with your lies, you can't act. Or sing. Did you hear that, people?! When he was little, Brother wanted to be on BROADWAY."

"YOU DID NOT JUST DO THAT."

"I SURE DID. U MAD?! WHATTAYA GONNA DO?! DO YOU EVEN LIFT?!"

"I LIFT MORE OFTEN THAN YOU DO, AL!"

"CUZ YOU NEED IT."


	3. Chapter 3

**I hope what's going on makes at least a bit of sense! o.o' And that this story isn't a disappointment compared to other stuff I've written. I mean, it's kinda different from that other stuff, so I don't know if it really is good or not!**

**On with the story!**

* * *

"What are you doing, Al?" The next day, neither seemed to remember the fight before that may have traumatized the littlest kids. John had just walked into his little brother Matt's room.

"Watching the show about our great-great-grandpa," he said innocently. He sat on his bed with a laptop on his lap, most likely on Netflix again.

"Seriously? I think you have rerun that 3 times in the past week," Ed said incredulously. "Don't you have homework?"

"Nope! Finished it all before school ended," Al chirped without taking his eyes off the screen.

"Don't you have really good memory, though? You probably already know some of this word for word."

High intelligence ran in the family, and most of that intelligence is due to them having the memory of an elephant. It's quite obvious how deep that trait runs when you notice how much and how detailed poor Edward, the Fullmetal Alchemist, remembered things.

"That's my goal."

"..." Ed didn't know what words to say, but the silence said enough.

"Look, considering there's barely any information that I totally know to be true anywhere else, this is the best way to learn about our ancestors." Al had finally directly looked at his sibling to explain before continuing to watch.

"It's a show. They most likely changed things," he reasoned in monotone.

"Better this than nothing." The little brother shrugged, unblinking.

"Wait, what about that picture you found? There's gotta be more than that." Ed sat down on the bed next to the laptop. Al sighed as he paused the episode.

"I dug deep. There is very little information about them. It's basically date of death and their offspring. There wasn't anything about occupation, besides that photo, or where they have lived. No documents, no letters, no signature. There wasn't even a date of birth."

"Conclusion?" Ed rubbed his chin.

"Either they purposefully left little evidence of their existence here, or those that have any of those things have kept them hidden and not public."

"Very easily both."

"Right."

"...Of course, it could be a much more innocent reason," Ed mused.

"Yeah, like any of their friends that have things are probably elderly and don't keep up with the times." Al smiled. "They might not even know that they can put those documents online, much less how."

"Raisin-faced geezers." Ed smirked.

Al put on his scolding pout. "That was rude, even if this is a private conversation." ...They still don't know I'm here...

"What you said could be considered rude too," Ed defended.

"All you said was insults!" Al threw up his hands. "Wait- stop. I don't want to start another fight, especially since the last time we did one in my room you broke some of my stuff." Oh, seems they remembered the incident the day before after all.

"I broke your stuff?! You're the one who threw your lamp at me!" Ed accused.

"Boys, I don't want to pick up shards again! Play nice!" Their mom called from the kitchen.

"We were just discussing something!" the elder yelled back.

"I know what happens after discussions with you, John."

"Notice how she didn't mention _me_," Al giggled.

"You're not much of a pacifist either, Matt," she replied, having not heard his comment, but knowing her son well enough to know he would say that.

"Thanks a lot, Mom!" Al grumbled sarcastically.

"Just watch your show and be quiet," she ordered, and both brothers rolled their eyes as Al unpaused and Ed scooched more onto the bed to get a better view of the screen. He figured he might as well watch too, now that he was here.

* * *

A (manly) scream rang out from Ed's room later that day. "WHAT HAPPENED IN HERE?!"

He threw open the door with a growl, then stomped around the building, searching for another soul to place the blame on. The first was, obviously, Al, since their bedrooms are right next to each other. They had been together for the whole afternoon, so he couldn't have been the reason.

The next was his mother, who was in the kitchen. She couldn't have done damage in his room, since- well, the Elric mother hated when things weren't clean and organized. Why would she do something like that?

Finding Ed's father was next, who as usual, was on his laptop, getting more work done while at the same time reaching into the far depths of Google. He ran out of the room before he could be bombarded with random facts from the glorious thing called the internet. (It's because of Dad that the brothers know about mantis shrimp. Not something John is exactly proud of.)

Who could it have been, then? Wait- no, it couldn't be! She was in boarding school, right?!

Ed cautiously tiptoed over to the last room in the house and opened the door, wincing when the hinge creaked a little. He poked his head in, and he nearly gasped in surprise when he found someone was inside.

"Hello, John." The 10-year old tipped her head over with a giggle as she turned to see who was entering.

"Um, h-hi, Megan." He stuttered and gulped nervously. "I didn't know you would be home."

"I said I felt sick, and convinced the nurse I needed to be treated here." The girl with dirty-blonde hair and European accent smiled very innocently.

'Manipulative little brat,' he thought to himself. "Nice to see you again. I'm gonna go clean my room." He spoke like he was trying to not viciously attack the girl.

"Oh yeah! Like how I redid your room?"

"No comment." He turned away immediately, knowing anything he ever said in response would be used against him, and their parents would end up yelling at him after she tattletaled.

He returned to Al's room, and only uttering "MEGAN" to the younger brother said everything.

"MEGAN." Matt hissed back with irritation.

* * *

"Yikes." Lily winced when she sat with the Elrics again, realizing too late how bad Ed's mood was. "I can literally see the dark aura around him..." she whispered to the younger brother.

"I know," Al whispered back. "Don't want to be rude, but it probably wasn't the best idea to come sit here today."

"Sorry," she apologized. Lily knew quite well how Ed sometimes got annoyed by her. Not knowing if it would be better to stay or leave, she looked around the cafeteria. The table where her other friends ate was too full, so she was stuck here. She sighed softly as she began her meal.

The awkward silence was very long and heavy on their heads, but neither Lily or Matt had the guts to say anything. It would probably have stayed that way the whole period, but at one point, Al realized he needed more ketchup, and his older sibling had some to spare.

"Brother?" he spoke up meekly.

"What? Do you want to know why I'm mad?" Ed didn't even give him any time to answer before continuing. "I'm mad because Megan is back! She will be spending the whole time torturing us as she used to! If destroying my room last night and messing with my breakfast this morning wasn't bad enough, I of course had to see HER on the way here!" He finished with stabbing his food with his fork violently.

"Megan is our little sister. She was admitted into a prestigious private school in England with full scholarship, so we usually only see her during school breaks," Al explained to a confused Lily.

"She is a little DEMON!" John scowled.

"I honestly have to agree with that." Al frowned. "The only good thing about her is her funny British accent."

"How long has she been there?" Lily asked, surprised.

"At the school, only a year. But before that, she was living with our aunt and uncle in Europe for about 3 years."

"That is kinda awesome. How old is she?" She asked with a grin before starting to drink some milk.

"She's just 10, but is in our grade. That's why she got that scholarship."

Lily nearly choked on the milk. "SHE'S IN HIGH SCHOOL?"

"Yeah, she's even brainier than us. And more dangerous," Ed warned, still looking quite tense.

A minute went by as the girl of the group ate a bit more. "..What about when you said 'her'? Because it seemed you were speaking of a different female."

"Wait, were you talking about Ryan, Brother?" Al lifted an eyebrow.

"Yes, Ryan! I know you saw her too, since we come to school together." Ed rolled his eyes.

"A girl named Ryan?" Oh great, writing about people with unisex names can become so confusing. ...Sorry for interrupting.

"She's the one that is a lot like you," Al explained again.

"Oh, the reason that Ed doesn't like me all that much?"

"Yes." The eldest Elric glared at her.

"Now I don't know if I want to meet her or not," she whined.

"Sure!" "Don't!" Both brothers exclaimed at the same time.

"..."

"...Brother, give me some of your ketchup."

* * *

"Why are you making food for me, Matt?" the 10-year old questioned as she sat at the counter in the kitchen.

"Because I like to cook, and I want you to enjoy being home."

"Where is John?"

"I think he is finishing his homework right now." Al continued to stir the pot of homemade macaroni and cheese.

"I have already finished the homework they sent with me." Megan giggled in a way that made him feel like she was acting superior to him.

"What have you been doing in school?"

"Trigonometry."

His stirring slowed down a little at hearing the long word. He didn't really know how to respond without making her mad or himself look stupid, so he was relieved when just then the third Elric sibling walked in.

"Yo, Al. Can I have some?" He plopped into a stool next to their sister. "Hello, Megan." Ed greeted her as if she would hit him if he didn't.

"What do you want, John?" was the serious reply back. The change in mood made both brothers jump.

"Um..."

"Don't act so surprised. I have seen it in the movies. People always feed someone before asking, or maybe begging, for them to do something for them. I already know how bad you are at cooking, so you sent poor Matt to do it for you. Am I wrong?"

"...You're right, Brother asked me to make this." Al immediately surrendered. Mac 'n' cheese was her favorite food, as far as they remembered. He began serving the meal into bowls, anyways, not wanting to waste his work.

"Fine," Ed grumbled, "I'll tell you right now. We need you to put your skills into finding more information about somebody."

"Stalkers," she muttered in her English dialect as her brother passed her a bowl.

"This somebody is already dead!" He crossed his arms.

"Necrophiliacs."

"Gross!" Both brothers yelled incoherent things in disgust.

"I am happy enough with my life not doing things for you." Megan started eating, and already it seemed her mood was getting better. "Although this pasta is beautiful." Why do British people call food adjectives like that? Seriously.

"Look, we want to know more about our great-great-grandpa," Al explained calmly to her.

"Plus, get back at a few people," the eldest added.

"Oh, you are getting interested in ancestors? I'll admit, some have very intriguing stories. And who are these few people?" She was getting close to smiling now, since she was really enjoying her food.

"Teenagers that insulted us horribly because we are smarter than them." Ed rolled his eyes.

"...And what's wrong with being _smart?_" Both brothers saw the fire dancing in their sister's eyes as she growled. Seems they finally got her onto the plan.

* * *

Megan Alyssandra Elric: _10 years old, in 10__th_ _grade. Has light brown eyes and hair, which is cut in a very innocent-looking long bob and side-swept bangs. She lives with their aunt and uncle in England, separate from her family most of the time. She did not show her true colors until kindergarten, and it turned out her true colors were quite dark and disturbing. (Her parents are the only ones who don't see them.) Both of her brothers are now slightly terrified of her, and never speak of the things she did to them before moving away. Only her mom, dad, aunt, and uncle are allowed to call her "Alys", or "Alice". She is extremely talented in the research department, being able to find rare books, hidden websites (accessed by skillful hacking, when necessary), etc. and being able to store the information along with its exact source in her amazing memory. Ed and Al generally avoid contact with her when they can._ "I have a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over these past few years. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you." "YOU'RE the one with the accent!"

Stephanie Grace Elric, _AKA_ Mom: _Her last name was "Smith" until she married. 36 years old, is a kindergarten teacher. Has dirty blond hair and blue eyes. She is currently a popular artist on Tumblr. Ed's favorite picture is a family portrait she drew when he was very little. Al's is a self-portrait she had made soon after he began to be interested in anime._ "My motherly instincts are telling me John is punching somebody at school right now."

Wendell Elric, _AKA _Dad: _40 years old, is a computer software engineer. He and Stephanie married pretty young, despite not having approval from both sides on the family. He has a bad habit of roaming through the internet for hours for the most random things. That wouldn't be so bad if he didn't always find it necessary to show what he finds to his family. Ed dislikes hanging out with him for this reason, but otherwise loves his father._ "Steph! Look at this!~"

* * *

**Megan is totally not inspired by Megan from _Drake and Josh. _XD It's because of shows like these that make me associate certain names with certain things. For example, in my brain, Megan is associated with mean and/or evil, and Kevin is associated with a bully. (Thanks a lot, _Fred: the Movie_! Yeah, I watched that when it came out.) Their dad, who, actually doesn't really have a part in this story (sorry for spoiling that), is kinda my dad if he looked a little more like Hohenheim.**

**K, bai!**


	4. Chapter 4

***Really weird, awkward chuckle* I've been waiting for this!**

**(When I was, what, 6? I had a sensei too. But I remember him being kinda scary. *sweat drop* Why couldn't I have had this sensei? ;-;)**

**Also, I had told Anthem of the Lonely (who's an awesome author for reals, go check it out) I would put someone based off of her in the story. I don't _really _know much about her, though, besides the fact that her hair is excruciatingly thick. ._. (Sometimes it takes a while for me to wonder how I even start having certain conversations with people...) This probably isn't accurate, but it'll have to do. She has a bigger part later, so remember! Never forget! XD *waves arms around, hoping someone notices the reference* Yes? No?... I'm pathetic. ;-;**

**John=Ed, Matt=Al.**

**On with the story!**

* * *

Sensei greeted the boys outside his door, and herded them into his office. They sat down awkwardly, not knowing what to say that wouldn't seem rude.

"Last class, it was brought to my attention that you are related to a man named Edward Elric. Would you like to know more about him?"

"What do you know about him, Sensei?" Ed asked in surprise when Al was finished with enthusiastically nodding.

"Hopefully, enough to be of use to you."

The senior plopped onto his desk a huge photo album; huge as in length, height, AND width.

"Does he have a knack for scrapbooking or something?" Ed whispered to his brother in disbelief.

"Ssh, Brother! This is important to us!" Al scolded back quietly.

"Alright, boys. Now, when I first met Edward Elric, it was back in the 1950's." Sensei began as he started flipping through the pages.

"DANG."

"Brother!"

"Don't worry about it, Mr. Elric. I know I am at retirement age." The man chuckled. "Ah, here we go. This is me when I was 7, meeting your great-great-grandfather." He passed the heavy book to the students, both gasping when they saw the old photograph. While both Sensei and Edward were at an entirely different age than the boys were accustomed to in it, it was obvious they were indeed the same people. Both smiled a little awkwardly for the camera as their ancestor had a hand on their teacher's shoulder. There was another picture next to it that also included another man who looked like the mini-Sensei, so they assumed he was his father.

"Both he and his brother, Alphonse, lived in Germany together until they decided to move to the United States when Edward turned 19. 5 years later Alphonse went to travel throughout Asia alone, which lasted until he found a girl to take home."

"Where did you meet Edward?" Al asked politely.

"At a national karate championship." Sensei replied with a fond smile. "It happened near where I lived, and my father was already friends with them, so he took me there. I was never really interested in martial arts until then. Imagine my surprise when a man with blond hair and honey eyes, one of the oldest in the contest, stepped onto the mat against another man twice his size. I mean, besides his interesting appearance, he just looked pretty average, TOO average, to be among national champions. I prepared for when the poor blondie was going to be creamed, when he managed to flip his competitor over his shoulder!" Al's jaw dropped while his brother burst out laughing.

"So your dad introduced you to him afterwards?"

"Yes, Edward. I had taken that opportunity to ask him about his style, as it looked like it was specially designed to fight larger people. I felt like I needed that since I used to be pretty short. He taught me a few moves, and was a pretty good teacher, although he was really insensitive with the comments when I tried them myself. It got me annoyed enough that I made a resolve to get good enough at martial arts to beat Edward Elric."

"Did you ever beat him in combat?"

"Nope."

"What about Alphonse? Did you meet him?" Matt inquired.

"I met him about 10 years later, when both of the Elrics were in town. That picture is on the next page." Ed turned the page, and they saw the photo. The quality of the photograph was a little better, and the smiles of the 4 men in the frame were more genuine. While his dad and the brothers definitely looked older, the biggest change was Sensei, who went from a scrawny 7-year old to a tall, muscly young adult.

"What careers did they have?"

"As far as I know, a variety. In his late teenage years, Edward was a rocket scientist. All he ever told me about the time between that and when he married and had kids was that they went around 'beating up bad guys'. After that, Edward became a professional martial arts master and traveled around the country, teaching and competing, while Alphonse studied Asian culture, then became a professional translater for German, English, and Chinese, plus maybe a small amount of other languages like Japanese. While it wasn't his career, I know that he participated in some tournaments with his brother when he had the time. They may have done some teaching at a college for a few years too. I don't really know what they did after retiring besides travel."

"Do you know when they died?"

The atmosphere of the room changed a little at the quiet question. Their teacher wore a solemn frown as he tried to recall.

"It was about 20 years ago, before either of you were born. I don't know any details, although I assume it was only from old age. If I know those brothers well enough, I'm sure they were enjoying life to the fullest up to that moment."

They all shared a small smile of respect. They were silent for a few minutes, before Ed decided the air was clear enough for him to change the topic without seeming rude.

"May I ask why you waited so long to tell us these things? You've known us for, like, 10 years!"

"I wasn't entirely sure that you two were actually related to them. I know that 'Elric' isn't exactly the most common last name- by the way, there's some other pictures in there, if you want to look at them- but I have just seen too many coincidences in my life to think about this one too much. The resemblance, now that you are both older, is just uncanny, however. I didn't want to bring up the topic of family history without having a good reason, and now that I know for sure that it isn't just a coincidence, I'm fully prepared to give you information."

He glanced over to the clock on his desk, doing a double-take. "Oh, look at the time! Class is about to start! We'll have to wait to continue this another time. Are there any final questions you have for me?"

Ed and Al turned to each other, having a silent conversation, before the former nodded to the latter to speak. "Can we keep any of the photos?"

* * *

Lily groaned as she saw all the long lines in different parts of the cafeteria. For some reason, there was a much larger amount of students standing in them than usual. She chose the shortest one, but even then, she knew it would take forever to get something to eat.

A few minutes later, when the line finally inched forward, she accidentally stepped a bit on the girl in front of her. "Oh my gosh, I am so sorry- that shirt is so awesome!" She interrupted her own apology with the compliment by accident, as it had just slipped out without her thinking.

"Oh, thanks!" The girl giggled at the reddening face of the other teenager. "Don't worry about it. I like your shirt too."

Lily looked down at herself, having forgotten for most of the day that she was wearing her oversized neon orange Kool-Aid shirt, which she had just gotten because it was orange (she didn't like Kool-Aid, unlike what people thought from the shirt). She smiled back to the girl with relief, but a small amount of embarrassment lingered about.

Usually, small chat like that would have died right there, but the stranger seemed to want to continue it. She asked a surprised Lily, "Do you know why the lines are so long today?"

"I was wondering the same thing! I tend to pick the worst days to buy hot lunch..." she complained. "See, this is why I usually bring lunch from home!"

"What kind of stuff do you bring?"

"My mom usually makes a sandwich, and with that is whatever snack we have available at the house. Sometimes it's chips, Craisins, or lately, it's been Hello Panda."

"Hello Panda?! I love that stuff!"

"Are you serious?! Most people don't know what the heck they are!" Lily exclaimed, very surprised and pleased.

From there, the two girls had a very long conversation, jumping from one topic to the next, talking as if they were best friends for years. They kept themselves occupied with the discussions, even as they finally reached the lunch ladies serving food.

"I don't remember just about anything of that dream, except that I was wearing my Perry the Platypus shoes- the ones I'm wearing now! Such a coincidence, haha- and the faces on them were getting all distorted and weird, like they were melting or something." Both girls stared at Lily's feet, imagining the strange phenomenon she had described.

"As far as I know, platypus faces don't melt off shoes." The other girl replied. They both laughed lightly as they paid for their meals.

"Oh, I'm gonna go sit with my friends over there. Wanna come with?" The now-not-so-stranger offered.

"Sorry, already have an appointment."

"That's fine. Bye!"

Lily grabbed her arm before the teen could walk away. "Wait! We don't even know each other's names!" They chuckled in mutual agreement. "I'm Lily."

"Nice to meet you, Lily." They shook hands. "I'm Ryan."

She watched the girl, whose name is now known, go over to her friends, not getting the chance to say any more of the matter. She stood dumbly as her brain registered what happened. 'Ryan?...!'

* * *

"Wow, this is awesome!" Lily gasped as she carefully held the photograph in her hands like it was a fragile work of art. It was a picture of Edward and Alphonse Elric with their arms around each other's shoulders, both looking around her parents' age, or maybe a little older.

"This... this is more than awesome... I can't think of a sufficient word for this..." She studied the picture with deep concentration, not realizing how she looked.

"Lily! Calm down! You're almost shaking!" Al grabbed the photo from her hands, nervous by her reaction.

"Almost? She's shaking like a chihuahua! ...Are you CRYING?!" Ed exclaimed, completely flabbergasted.

"I'm sorry, guys," she gave a weak smile while wiping away the tear forming in her eye, "it just... it didn't REALLY sink in that they have been living here, on Earth, to the very day they died."

"Why are YOU the one crying?" Ed asked, not noticing that both Matt and Lily slightly smiled at the statement, as it reminded them of one of the quotes from _Fullmetal Alchemist_.

"You two won't cry; someone should do it for you, don't you think?" She responded, directly quoting the show now.

"I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE!" Lily giggled as she high-fived the enthusiastic Al, who was always happy when something like this happened. Ed was a little slower to realize what he meant. He facepalmed once he replayed what had been said in his head and caught the reference.

"No, but seriously. Why are you reacting to this more seriously than we did? WE are the ones related to Edward, you know."

"I think it's kinda like when someone getting sick affects their family and friends more than the sick person. They are just like 'Why are you people overreacting over this?' Am I right?"

Lily had completely calmed down by now, and was scarfing down her food to make up for the lost time with the conversation. She was on the last bites when the bell rang, and she swallowed quickly to say one last thing.

"Oh yeah. I just became friends with Ryan. BYE!" She ran off before Ed could eat her head or something.

* * *

**I know, the Winry quote is actually from FMA:B, but pretend they actually know what she's talking about. XD See, this is why I put in the summary that I'm assuming you know stuff about Brotherhood too!**

**And that weird thing about platypus shoes? That really happened to me... And I told Anthem about it... And she said she wanted me to stick it in here somehow. XD**

**Seeing that photo would also be like when my family flew to Mexico for the first time in forever (AKA about 5 years). It didn't really sink in until the next morning that we were in another flippin' country. XD**

**K, bai!**

* * *

Sensei: _No one knows for sure his age, although he revealed to Ed and Al that he is gonna retire soon. None of his students know his real name, either. He has earned black belts in multiple forms of martial arts, and it seems he's not stopping. He is very respected in his field of work. He is in really good shape; in fact, the only thing that indicates he is much older than his well-built body suggests is his gray-white hair. He seems like a very tough teacher, but his students eventually figure out that he is really a big softie, and that they all have a place in his heart. He secretly has a big soft spot for the Elric brothers. _"If you want respect, you need to give people a reason to respect you."

Ryan: _Alike to Lily in more ways than you'd imagine. She naturally has extremely thick, dark brown curls, but has put in pink and blue tips. She has grown her hair out longer so that her curls aren't so tight. She'd straighten her hair if it wasn't such a pain; she only leaves that for special occasions. She wears lots of stripes, polka dots, and other patterns; lots of black, white, and bright colors mixed together; yet, such loud, teenager-y clothes don't look so loud on her frame. Her sense of humor is sometimes rude, harsh, and insensitive- not surprisingly, she loves "Cards of Humanity." She lost Ed's friendship, but no one is entirely sure what happened._ "Boo."


	5. Chapter 5

**Something so funny and weird happened last week that I'm gonna see if I can substitute it in for part of a future chapter. XD**

**And... my sister's moving out tomorrow. We've already had a short cry over it today. :'( YYYYYYYYYYY ;-;**

**Also, I just watched _The Iron Giant. _;-;**

**...**

***ahem***

**I put the extra thing _before _the chapter this time, because this story is now getting serious, and I thought it would've been a bit messed up to put it at the end of this chapter or any other ones after this. Hehehe...**

**On with the story!**

* * *

"Okay, I know you guys said people called you Ed and Al because your first names are too common. They are, especially John, but... Are there really that many Matts in the world?"

Both snickered loudly. She raised her brow and frowned, frazzled.

"Lily... You haven't been around here for very long, right?"

"Yeah..."

"I guess you don't have many classes with all the other Matts here." The brothers shared a knowing smirk. "For some reason, many babies in this area were named Matt at the same time, so there's, like, five others besides me. In our grade."

Her eyes widened. "Seriously?! That's worse than when there were three Kaylas in 6th grade!"

"There's a few in the grades above and below, too," Ed added.

"Daaang, people!" She rolled her eyes in slight disbelief and annoyance at the unoriginality of all the parents.

"Some of them use different nicknames too, so I guess that's why you didn't notice?" Al pondered. "But we all kind of formed a club and we meet every once in a while. It's pretty funny because we sometimes go to a restaurant or walk around town and meet strangers and say "This is Matt A. and Matt B. and Matt E.- that's me- and Matt G., etc., etc."

"That's pretty awesome." Lily grinned as she imagined a group of young men sauntering down the sidewalk, waiting to reveal their little not-so-secret to others, then laughing and fist-bumping and being average stupid teenage boys.

"I'm friends with the Jons and Johns too, but there's sadly not enough of us to do the same thing." Ed shook his head in dismay.

"It's okay, Ed," Lily cooed as she started patting his head sympathetically, much to his irritation. "Maybe someday."

"Get your hand out of my hair," he growled menacingly in a low volume. It seemed there was an anime tick mark on his forehead, growing in size.

"Your hair's cool! And much better cared for than mine," she giggled as she ruffled his hair, now really ruffling his feathers too. "It's almost long enough for pigtails."

"Shut your face!" he muttered darkly as he threw her hand away from him. Al gulped and peered into his eyes. They somehow screamed "DEATH" at him- even though eyes clearly have no vocal chords.

* * *

Al glanced behind him, making sure his older brother was gone. He turned back to Lily. "Sorry if Brother has offended you deeply. He's like that with everyone."

"Yeah, I know." She shrugged the apology off. "I think I know you guys well enough. He doesn't _really _mean a lot of the rude stuff he says, it just comes out like that. Of course, it really doesn't help that I sometimes provoke him." She looked to him with a mixed expression, mainly of amusement. "Why is it so fun sometimes to poke a stick at grizzly bears like this?"

"How long did that take? ...The figuring us out part."

She leaned back and gazed forwards, but not really at anything in particular. "Not long. Especially since he reminds me of the person he was named after. Bark is worse than bite. People can tell he's really got a big heart underneath. Ya know." She glanced back to him.

"I'm glad you think so." Al sighed with a relieved smile. "Poor Brother has a hard time with friends."

Lily paused for a moment. "You know, there's been a few friends I've made that others asked why I even talked with them. Like, one guy that someone said was a total jerk. I still thought he had a good heart, and what really mattered was how he treated _me. _Few times he ever made me even slightly upset, and we always quickly made up afterward. I guess that's how it is with Ed, although he might be a bit more extreme case."

Al smiled to her in gratitude. "Well, thanks. I think having a close friend again is helping his attitude, even if it doesn't look like it right now. Of course he won't admit it, but I think you're just what we needed."

* * *

"Uh, hi. For the research project, I decided to learn about the man I am named after; my great-great-grandpa."

He clicked a button, and the first slide for the PowerPoint was shown, which clearly said in black letters 'EDWARD ELRIC.' Some students looked bored out of their minds, while some were intrigued, for they either remembered the rumors from very recently about the weird Elrics or they recognized the character's name.

"I never met him while he was alive, and no one had ever mentioned anything about him. My first exposure to him was through this."

The next slide had pictures of the FMA manga and anime. Now more people were paying attention, confused as to where he was getting this.

"In the early 2000's, Hiromu Arakawa wrote a book series about Edward Elric, which was later turned into two shows, each with their own movie. Due to a recommendation by a friend, my brother and I ended up watching the first anime and movie."

He breathed in and out to keep calm. Presenting just was not his thing.

"Do you know how creepy it was?!" A few students jumped in their seats at the sudden exclamation. "Al and I look almost the exact same as them!"

...He tried breathing in and out again.

He proved his point by changing slide, this one showing a picture of the two heroes (while still flesh and blood) of _Fullmetal Alchemist_ next to a picture of him and his brother, and a girl in her seat nodded slowly, a little dumbfounded by this.

"It's not just appearance! It's also personality, intelligence, and talent, passed directly through the Elric bloodline."

He showed a slide with a tree chart, showing himself at the bottom and Edward Elric at the top, with the generations in between filled in. He looked out to the audience and noticed one of those guys who were teasing him before about this rolling his eyes. Ed silently huffed before returning to his presentation.

"Just hear me out here. We figured out that it wasn't just a coincidence when we found this on one of those geneaology websites."

He clicked a button, revealing that the next slide was the picture of Edward Elric with the rocket scientists. He heard a gasp or two from those teenagers he knew liked watching anime.

"This is a real photograph here, people. He really exists. And it's not the only one. I will be showing some of the other ones later. But now let's begin with..."

He clicked once again, showing a page with a few bullet points on it, and it had the title "Childhood".

"His younger brother, Alphonse Elric, is about a year younger than him, yet another creepy coincidence," he muttered the last part more to himself, "so just figure it out in your head, as I'll only be saying Edward's age throughout most of this. They lived in a very small rural town in eastern Amestris, their home country, at a house on a hill. His father, Van Hohenheim, left when he was around 4 for what was then an unknown reason. A few years after that, their mother, Trisha Elric, died from an illness, leaving them without parents. Missing their mom so much caused Edward and Alphonse to not exactly make the best decision. They tried to bring her back. This isn't about zombies, so don't expect an apocalypse. However, attempting it left them as..."

He grimaced as he went to the next slide, which showed Edward after the Human Transmutation, with Alphonse behind his wheelchair. He thought he heard a groan of disgust from somewhere, and in another part of a room a group of girls gasped. He quickly clicked to the next slide, since it showed Edward after he was fully recovered with automail.

"Their bad decision caused Edward to lose an arm and a leg, and Alphonse was stuck in a suit of armor. I'm not going to explain more since it is long and complicated, and if you really wanted to know you can just read or watch." Ed rolled his eyes. "Anyways, he got fixed up with prosthetic limbs and the two went to find a way to regain what they had lost, and the only way to get the information and materials they needed was to join the military. Edward, at twelve, became a 'State Alchemist,' something that exists where he is from, which is the same rank as a Major, getting the name 'Fullmetal Alchemist', the title of the franchise."

He flipped to the next slide, which was just a group of pictures capturing most of what happened for the next few years; from the brothers sitting in a train, to Colonel Roy Mustang's team, to Edward making the headline of a newspaper.

"For the next 3-4 years, the Elrics traveled around the country to research and complete missions for the military, along the way helping out the citizens however he could. His name became very well-known, basically what you could call a 'household name'. He was a celebrity."

He clicked to change to the next slide, which had the dramatic title 'Everything Changes', along with a few bullet points to remind him of what he needed to say.

"When he was 15, he finally found what he had been looking for, only to found out that in order to get him and his brother back to normal, it would cost others' lives." Frowns spread around the room. "And as if his life wasn't complicated enough, even with the minimal explaining I'm doing here, he found out that there was a threat to not just the country, but maybe the world. That, if it continued to exist, could kill thousands of people, easily." Some frowns changed into questioning looks. "Yeah, this is where the real plot of the show starts. But this report is about Edward Elric, not about his show, so we are fast-forwarding to when it's ending."

He laughed to himself as he studied the reactions in the room. Some looked a little frustrated by the way he was doing this report, but as he said, the focus wasn't on Edward's days as Fullmetal Alchemist; it was about what happened after.

"Spoil alert- at the end, Edward is dying. Wait, no, he's actually kinda dead. Alphonse freaks out and revives him, sacrificing his own life instead. Then when Edward wakes up, HE freaks out and tries to bring his brother back. They both end up living, but the price to pay was that Edward was separated from his brother forever, dun dun dun. And where could Edward end up to be separated? Freaking London, England."

The next slide was shown, with the title "Conqueror of Shamballa." On one side was a picture of Edward from the movie, on the other one or two bullet points.

"This is where we enter the movie, which is a continuation of the show. Once again, a force threatening the lives of innocents, brothers trying to find each other, yadda yadda yadda. At the end, both the Elrics are together once again and live in Germany. Yay."

He paused and glanced to the audience, once again breathing in and out deeply. He was doing better than his unsupportive friend Lily had thought he would. Ha!

"Remember that photo from the beginning? In the beginning of the movie, it shows that Edward was living in Germany as a rocket scientist, or at least training to be one. He takes a picture with all of the others in the same project as him, which just so happens to be that real photo."

The next slide showed the picture in both versions he spoke of, the one shown in the movie and the one from the internet, with captions as to where they were found.

"With the help of my siblings, we have found more than this one, though."

He briefly went through the next slides, which were of real photographs of the Elrics. He was once again internally thanking Megan, even if both were too stubborn to want to hear him say it out loud.

"Also, I sat down for a few chats with my Sensei, who explained to me that his father was good friends with both of them. These are some of the pages from his photo book."

More photos were shown, hand-taken by yours truly, of the pages to prove that he saw them for himself. They usually had a man with dark hair in the frame with them, and in the later ones they also displayed his son.

"Just for extra credit, I recorded the interview I had with him."

The teacher clicked the play button on his next slide, and everyone's ears were exposed to a clip of what was probably recorded on his phone or something, but through the background noises, they could hear the older man loud and clear.

"_I only knew Edward when I was a boy, but even now I can remember how much his stories fascinated me." _A slightly-raspy voice said. _"I mean, where could a couple of guys come up with that stuff? I knew the protagonists were obviously the Elrics, but beyond that... They always talked about magic- wait, no, they emphasized that it was a science- and metal limbs and crazy criminals and annoying bosses and friendships and brotherhood... There are a lot of things I'd be willing to do to bring them back to life just to tell one of those stories again."_

"_Before we finish here," _Ed's disembodied voice echoed through the recording, _"one more question: have you ever heard of the Fullmetal Alchemist?"_

"_No, what is that? It sounds stupid." _The old man replied bluntly. A few soft chuckles were heard around the room.

"_Fullmetal Alchemist is a guy."_

"_What was that man thinking? Giving himself a weird name like that... What, was he inspired by rappers?"_

The laughter was a little louder as the audio clipped at the end. Ed joined them in the snickering as he went on with his PowerPoint, talking about what his great-great-grandfather had done since the end of the movie.

Ed flipped to his second to last slide, which had the date of death, and just seconds after went to the very last slide of his presentation which just said "The End."

"Any questions?"

* * *

"I wish I had a noisemaker or confetti or something right now!" Lily complained, but failed to sound mad because she was already too happy.

"Yeah, yeah, now can you LET ME GO?" Ed growled as he struggled against the bear hug the girl was giving him.

"Give me another moment! You're too cuddly and I'm too excited!" She started hugging even harder.

"Did you eat too much sugar or something?" he wheezed out.

"Probably!" she chirped, then finally let him go. He gulped in air violently as his brother and friend giggled to themselves.

"So how did everyone react, Brother?" Al leaned in to get the details and munched on his sandwich.

"Let's just say mine seemed to be the most interesting." Ed smirked. "By the end, everyone's eyes were glued on me. And I may have just changed the perspectives of people, including those who were being a-"

"Buttholes," Lily supplied over the swear with a snarky grin. She just got glared back at.

"I'd be surprised if you didn't. This kind of information totally changes everything. People thought of as fictional actually being real! And contributing to society in some way."

"Spreading the word will not only get _Fullmetal Alchemist _noticed more, as it rightly should be," Lily said, "but it will give more credit to these guys, and perhaps we will actually discover more people that were thought of as just characters."

"Yeah, I thought about that!" both brothers exclaimed smartly at the same time. Al continued, "I mean, if it turns out Amestris is real, then other worlds could be real too!"

"Like Narnia!"

"Yeah!" They all cried out, causing a few of the people around them to look over.

"What about Narnia?" A random girl with very short hair stopped at their table.

"Uh, nothing!" Al said, starting to look flushed.

"You are one of Ryan's friends, right?" Lily asked shyly, remembering that she saw Ryan sitting at a table with this girl and a few other random people.

"Yeah, I am. You are too?" Al and Lily nodded a little, and then Ed did too after hesitating. "Then do you guys know about what happened to her?"

"What are you talking about?" Ed demanded. The girl blinked and sighed sadly as she sat down next to them temporarily.

"She got in a car crash last night. A real nasty one."

"Are you serious?!" Al blurted as Lily gasped and Ed grimaced.

"Yeah. If the ambulance hadn't arrived so soon, she might've not made it." The girl bit her lip with a wince.

"Will she be okay?" John asked seriously.

"Everyone thinks she'll be fine, or at least not affected too much, but I'm too much of a realist." The girl gave her honest opinion. "Who knows what'll happen."

* * *

Al took back the card, irritation written across his face. "Seriously? Now of all times? I know you are very stubborn, Brother, but I still expected you to let it go at least until we know if she will _survive._"

"I don't know, Al!" Ed crossed his arms, frustrated at the situation and himself. "If she sees me sign that card, it might seem like I'm being forced to, like it's insincere. I really do want to sign it, though. Despite my grudge, I kinda..." He made some grunty noises, mentally punching something. "...Still think of her as a friend," he finished quietly.

"And she probably thinks of you as a friend still too! It might hurt her feelings if you don't sign at all!" Al huffed and plopped down next to his older sibling. He took a deep breath and asked the question. "What even happened between you guys? You were so close."

Ed's eyes glanced over to his brother through his (slightly longer by now) bangs. He sighed deeply and his expression softened more. "I didn't want to tell you because you'd probably think it was stupid."

Matt studied the elder's facial expression until he figured it out. "It involved me, didn't it?"

John let out his breath noisily and half-smiled. They could nearly read each other's minds. "Yeah, she said some stuff about you. I doubt she was trying to insult you, but it still sounded like it to me. I told her to knock it off, but she kept doing it over the span of a few weeks. I decided enough was enough and cut the line."

"What did she say?"

"At this point, I can't really remember anymore. Pathetic, isn't it? Holding a grudge against something I no longer remember."

Matt gave a weary look. He knew his brother was lying. Ed remembered just about everything. If he said this, then he really didn't want to tell him any more than that.

"At least I'm not totally in the dark anymore. Thanks for finally telling me, Brother." Al looked down and realized he was still holding the card. He held it back out to his sibling. "If you want to be sincere, you can write more than just your name. There's plenty of space. But do it soon, because I plan to take it to Ryan's room in the hospital after school tomorrow."

* * *

**...Woop, der it is. ;-; I'm sorry I did this to your character, Anthem! I'd gotten stuck! I blame you, author! *glare* (I'm talking about a specific person, by the way. XD) But this actually plays a very vital part to the rest of it.**

**Before I forget, last week after I posted the previous chapter, I looked at the stats on this story. And I realized that I'd never actually looked at who followed/favorited. What a splendid (and odd) surprise it was when I discovered that the followers _weren't _the people who reviewed, and the reviewers weren't the ones who followed! o.O I'm most surprised by favorites, because I personally usually don't favorite something until it is finished.**

**I'm really grateful for all of you (even though I am too lazy to reply to you)! So much I'll name all of you! XD Thank you Rex the wolf for following, Cutiepie120048 for favoriting, author12306 and Scaehime for always reviewing because you're so awesome (and my fanfic besties), Daddy'sLittleAngel99 for following and favoriting, and Digi-fanCatt for following and reviewing! (P.S.- Digi, your question kinda confuses me. ._.)**

**K bai!**


	6. Chapter 6

**I'm updating on Friday instead of Monday just to see what will happen. ;3**

**Though no one directly asked, I guess I should explain. That whole school report thing last chapter was, essentially, John's revenge. I mean, it's not super vengeful or anything, but it felt a little perfect to me. What better way to get back by saying, "_This_ is why _I'm_ right, and why you should _apologize_ to me." (Getting your grade up with it is a bonus.) Let's assume that he was supposed to write a report about someone and was supposed to start it a month ago, but he has a terrible case of procrastination, but it's alright because he suddenly found information about someone both _awesome _and _real._ And let's assume that most of the people that were really ticking him off happened to be in the same class as him for the presentation and not skipping school.**

**Also, I was asked about this. Wanna make it clear that _Ryan is a girl that was born with a boy's name_ (although I guess it's now considered more like a unisex name, not just boy's) that, while it seemed to fit her personality, it confused people every once in a while, including the readers of this story (but she wouldn't know that part since my characters don't break the 4th wall; only the almighty author is allowed that privilege).**

**On with the story!**

* * *

Lily immediately jumped up on her feet as she watched the brothers walk into the lunchroom. They didn't even sit yet before she started asking questions. "Did you see her? Is she okay? Is she awake?"

"Sit down already," Ed grumbled in her direction. She complied, but did it slowly.

"Yeah, we saw her. She's not awake yet. Surprisingly, nothing happened to her head." Al reluctantly started eating his sandwich.

Lily paused, having expected more. "...What about everything else?" she asked quietly. They both gave her a look that said everything. She dropped her elbows on the table and started running her fingers through the hair on the crown of her head anxiously.

"She would probably be fine if the airbag actually did its job!..." Ed muttered darkly.

The others glanced over to his face. He was looking down at his lunch like it was a vile archenemy. They knew that people like the Eds preferred to be angry, since it was often easier to deal with than fear, so they let him be.

A solemn silence fell on the three, apparently not affecting anyone else around them. After a minute of being hunched over still, Lily drew a shaky breath and sat up enough to start eating too. She somehow got about halfway through her sandwich a few minutes before lunch was over. None of them felt as hungry as usual. Her face contorted until she couldn't take it and had to tell them what she was thinking.

"I know this is stupid and isn't my fault at all, but... I just barely met her days before she ended up... there... and I feel slightly responsible..." she choked out the last word. She whispered with a humorless smile, "...Now I kinda know what they felt when Hughes..."

Al looked at her with sympathy. It also flashed in Ed's, but just a flash. "You idiot. Just meeting her doesn't mean you are responsible for anything else that happens to her. It's just a bit of a cruel coincidence."

"What about Dr. Marcoh?" she retorted. "Nothing would have happened to him if they didn't meet him, but they led Lust to him on accident."

"I doubt anyone's after you or Ryan." He rolled his eyes.

"I know, but I can't stop thinking about it!" she complained.

He leaned over the table with a frustrated huff. "It's not your fault, it's not mine, it's not Al's. We need to stop blaming ourselves and just be ready to help her however we can. It's all we can do."

The bell rang. The brothers stood up and left, but Lily was still frozen on her seat. _...Did Ed just say he was blaming himself too?_ Though it wasn't exactly something to laugh about, she still allowed a very small smile as she picked her lunch bag off the table and walked to the door. It seemed she was always finding more similarities between the Elrics then and now.

* * *

A car rode up to stop next to a certain house and beeped a few times. A girl ran out of the house a few seconds later to the car and let herself into the backseat.

"Small word of advice- don't do that if you're taking a girl out on a date," Lily joked as she put on her seatbelt.

"Shut up. This is nothing even close to a date," Ed said quickly before driving the car onto the street again. "If going to the hospital could even be considered one, it would be a very depressing date anyway."

"Thanks again for picking me up. I know I'm not close friends with her or anything, but... I still felt like I should come."

"Don't worry about it," Al reassured from shotgun. "Your house is on the way. I didn't know that you lived so close to us."

"How long have you had your license?" She leaned into the space between the front seats as she asked the blond Elric in the driver's seat.

"I got it a month ago," Ed smirked as he continued to watch the road.

Lily blinked. "My sister said once that there's a rule about only having family in the car when you first get a license."

"Who follows rules like that?" he scoffed.

"You told me that that rule wasn't real!" Al accused his brother.

"I lied so you wouldn't worry about it." He shrugged.

"Would you stop lying to me someday, Brother?" Al sighed defeatedly.

"I don't know if he could survive that way." Lily shook her head no.

"Hey! I could be a goody-two-shoes like you! I just choose not to."

"Riiight," Al and Lily chorused sarcastically.

* * *

**I decided to just skip the visit itself. They went in, did stuff, and now just got out of the hospital.**

* * *

"Are you sure you heard something about prosthetics?!" Lily squeaked.

"95% sure," Ed said, dead serious.

She groaned worriedly and leaned back in the seat, staring at the ceiling of the car on the way back home.

"I didn't know car accidents could still get this bad!" Al cried out.

"Dang it!" she yelled and punched the seat next to her, surprising the brothers. "This really sucks!"

Neither knew what to say, so Ed just continued to drive.

She shifted in her seat and got her head farther back. "I just keep thinking about how automail is probably a lot better than what we have. Especially after so long. They've probably perfected it even more, and medical alchemy could probably work miracles," Lily blurted.

"You're right," both brothers said in unison, not noticing they did. They blinked as they considered what she said.

"I mean, Amestris probably has a lot wrong with it, but there's some things much better than on our side," she continued, not really being heard by the Elrics. She sat up suddenly and looked out the window in a rush. "Hey! You guys just passed my house!"

"O-oh, sorry." Ed had been too busy thinking, he forgot he was supposed to drive. He turned the car around at the first opportunity and dropped Lily off in the same place again. She waved goodbye as she ran to her front door.

She won't really remember this conversation.

But they sure will.

* * *

Al caught his brother looking up alchemy theories and medical websites on his phone.

He grabbed the elder's device without consent and studied the screen more. "...You're thinking the same thing as me, aren't you?" Matt whispered as he looked through the open tabs.

"Are you thinking that maybe the Gate being closed on both sides could've been made up in the movie?" John mumbled as he glanced to his younger sibling.

"So that no one would attempt anything?"

"And that, while it would probably kill us if we tried to cross over for the resources only provided on the other side, we could still try to do a transmutation here?"

"And if it's successful, we could possibly improve our skills to be able to help Ryan somehow?"

They shared a small nod and smile of understanding.

"Crazy, but it just might work." Ed lifted his arm to his brother.

"We're smart; we could figure it out." Al stretched out his and they bumped fists with determined expressions.

* * *

_**Clearly not smart enough...**_** *blinks* Oh, just thinking out loud. *sweat drop***

**K bai!**

* * *

Dixie: _Her parents have admitted that she was named after the store Winn-Dixie. (So was her sister Winnie.) She has light brown hair in a pixie cut and green eyes. She is one of Ryan's closest friends, and the person chosen to alert everyone about the crash. She doesn't do much in her free time besides socialize. She and Lily have had an interesting conversation together about the logic of video games._

"Buttface": _Lily never bothered to learn his name, so she deemed him with one of her favorite insults. Just the average teenage jerk and witling. He questioned them when he heard they believed some character from a show was real. They paid him back with tangible proof and a metaphorical slap to the face; the best way to deal with a guy nicknamed "Buttface" if it can be pulled off. (Google says that buttface is an actual word, ohmygosh! XD)_


	7. Chapter 7

**Okay, so the extra this time was originally part of the chapter, but then I realized it was probably considered more of a filler, so I rearranged. And then I changed the extra to a conversation that I think is more realistic than what I had before. *shrug* Now you'll see where my weird resides. XD**

**If anyone's confused about a single thing, please tell me! :3 (As to typos... I'm glad you catch them, but at the same time... I'm my own proofreader. And my laptop doesn't spellcheck. Give me a break. ;-;)**

**So, they've just started telling Lily their idea... But didn't really explain their reasoning beforehand...**

**On with the story!**

* * *

"Wha- no! _No!_ That's a _horrible_ idea!" she protested loudly, a furious look on her face.

"Why?" Ed moved away from her a bit, thrown off completely by her reaction. What happened to the die hard fan?

Lily quickly recovered from her outburst, now just kind of quiet as she rested her head on her fist for a moment. "This is just like the whole ouija board deal." She sighed silently. "I don't really believe in ghosts, but if, on the small chance that they really exist, you shouldn't be treating them as if they're just a toy. You shouldn't play with forces like that. If you attempt alchemy, who knows what can happen."

"Has someone ever asked you to play that game with them?" Al asked, curious if this was said from experience.

"No, and I'm glad." Lily gazed down to her hands. "I know that they are just stories, but bad things happen to people that do things like try to contact the dead or anything else they really shouldn't do, especially when they say 'it's just a game'. Heck, look what happened to Edward and Alphonse!"

"We aren't treating this as a game!" Ed argued.

She looked back up. Something happened to her eyes they'd never seen before. The brown eyes behind black rims suddenly reminded them of Fullmetal's. "I don't believe you."

"If you'd just let us _explain!"_ Ed shouted as he scowled at her, but she still didn't really give them time to talk.

"There are fanfics about crazy fangirls attempting alchemy and it actually _works,_ but they end up nearly dying multiple times and go through the same torture as a lot of FMA characters throughout the story. Does that sound _fun_ to you?!"

"What about modern day-"

"How much better would that be than where you live now?" she challenged.

"Well-"

"You have a complete life! All of your family and friends, amazing grades, whatever else that I don't know about!" Lily listed. "It might sound egotistical," the angry glint in her eyes now dimmed down into a sad tone, "but you also have ME. I love both of you, and I know that if you disappear off the planet..." She looked both in the eyes. "If you try to do this, imagine how much you might throw away."

"I know, but I feel it would be worth it." Ed said stubbornly.

"And I feel you both will die."

"I didn't know you'd be so against this." Al sighed. Anger flashed back onto Lily's face.

"Then you don't know me enough, _Matt_."

"Ouch." Ed winced as he glanced at his brother, who looked a little offended- it was like when a mother called her child by their full name when they were in trouble.

"You are not off the hook, _John_."

"Ow."

She breathed in and out deeply. "I want both of you to tell me that you are NOT going to do this. Go ahead and study alchemy if you want to, just _dabble_ in it, but you won't even _think_ about actually doing it." Lily held out her pinky.

The eldest crossed his arms, scrutinizing her outstretched hand skeptically. "I don't think I can make any promises with you."

She frowned and dropped her finger when the pinky promise was turned down. "Fine then, _John._ How about... I give you a day or two to give me your answer. BUT," she warned, "I don't want you two to pull an Elric on me!"

"'An Elric?'" both repeated in confusion.

"Saying you won't do something because everyone warns you against it, then go do it anyway! _Ay caray_, first it was bring their mom back despite telling Izumi they wouldn't, then there was Lab 5... You know how well it went for them because of that," she ended sarcastically. (Ed internally bristled because she turned their name into an action- though he had to admit it fit.)

"We won't lie to you," Al said softly, his honesty evident in his eyes. She seemed to relax a little more, as she gave a sigh of relief.

"Thank you." Lily stood up and hugged both brothers at the same time, surprising them, and, when the bell rang, walked away.

...Well, more like trudged away slowly.

* * *

Al had gone to the bathroom, so Ed was sitting alone in a chair facing an occupied hospital bed with a steadily beeping monitor next to it. He stared at the face of the patient. It seemed a bit wrong how her expression was so blank and calm when her physical condition was not doing so hot. At all. At least the longer she stayed asleep, the less time she'd have to feel what would probably be excruciating pain.

He never met someone who could verify whether people in comas really can hear what goes on around them, but he wanted to give it a shot, now that they was no one else in the room. He stood up and leaned onto the bed frame.

"Ryan, I am sorry for hurting your feelings, if I ever did. You know I'm protective of Al. But I am going to do whatever I can to help you out here. I don't care what you say about it." He breathed in and out. "What I have planned could be dangerous, but, if modern medicine doesn't do enough, it's the best option. I- We're possibly risking a lot if it works, only because we care for you that much. If it doesn't work... know that we _tried._" He felt his voice break down a bit. "_We really tried."_

Ed's head whipped over to face the entrance, as he heard some shuffling of feet beyond it. He quickly moved back into his chair and put on a poker face. Al quietly opened the door and slipped back in. He was about to sit down next to his sibling when he paused next to her bed.

"Is it just me... or does she look like she's feeling a bit better?" he said softly with a half-smile. Ed stood again to look into her face closer. Somehow, she seemed to be just a little less pale... and he swore the corners of her mouth were slightly turned up.

* * *

"Mum?"

_"Alice! How are you doing, sweetie?"_

"Fine. Nothing has been happening, lately." The Elric sister glanced about the room nervously, and held the phone closer to her ear. "How are my brothers?"

_"Same, as far as I know. At least, they haven't told me anything that says otherwise." _She gasped as she suddenly remembered something._ "Oh, except their friend, Ryan, I believe, is in the hospital. Bad car accident."_

"That's awful."

_"Yes, and she may not recover well. Poor girl. It's been hard on John and Matt. Otherwise, everything is normal."_

"Are you sure?"

_"Of course, sweetie." _The mother frowned a bit._ "Why are you suddenly so worried about them?"_

"I just have had a bad feeling, that's all. But I could be wrong."

The frown deepened. _"I doubt it. That gut has been passed down my family for generations, and it has never been wrong."_

"They won't tell you anything, will they?"

_"Of course not. Elric men try to hide everything they can. I'll still try to do a little investigating."_

"Thank you, mum. Tell me if you find anything."

_"Oh! I have to go. Bye, Alice."_

"Ciao." Megan looked back to the open laptop when the call ended. She had hacked into the eldest sibling's Google account the moment she had felt something disconcerting, and had found an incredible amount of some strange research in his search history.

She had then tried looking into Matt's. Same.

She knew that it wasn't just a hobby.

* * *

**My Megan seems to care more than the _Drake and Josh _Megan. Huh. (Oh, I forgot to mention- but she had left for home right after helping Ed out with his revenge thing.)**

**I think I'd be more willing to hear the brothers out in real life... But I'd still be against it just as much. (Heh, this chapter seems connected to my one-shot "The Shortest OC Story Ever" in my head. XD I hadn't really tried to do that. I can't even remember which one I wrote first.)**

**Yeah, I'm gonna stick with updating Mondays. So that chapter on Friday was an early treat. :P**

**I randomly decided to look up some Christina Perri songs... and I'm just now realizing how much she reminds me of one of my old friends. o.O It's freaky.**

**K bai!**

* * *

Lily raised a brow when she only saw Matt walk to their table. Usually the brothers walked in at the same time, even coming from different parts of the school.

"Hey, where's Ed?"

Al blinked and looked to both sides of him. "Oh. I don't know." He stared at nothing as he tried to think of a theory. "He has Chemistry right before lunch... so he is probably discussing a question or something with the science teacher."

Lily immediately became suspicious. "Why kind of question could he be discussing?"

Al felt uncomfortable under her stare. "Why are you looking at me like that? I don't know everything he thinks about!"

"Elric telepathy!" she accused, ignoring his bumfuzzled look. "You guys know just about everything about each other! I bet it's related to alchemy, huh?!"

Al held his hands up defensively. "Geez! Do you think we don't think about anything else? It could be he found an interesting article online, or wanted to learn more about something mentioned in class, or fix a grade in the computer. He might even just be in the bathroom!"

"It could be... but you can't be _that_ offended by the accusation. You just told me about the plan a few days ago, and transmutations require a deep understanding of chemistry," she explained with a critical eye, studying his reactions. "And honestly, I sure think about FMA stuff all the time." She paused. "Now that I think about it, you guys haven't told me whether you'll actually do it or not. I still highly suggest you don't try anything."

Al fidgeted and searched his brain for a way to change the subject. "Hey, didn't you say earlier you wanted to tell a story?"

Lily raised a brow again at the random question, but welcomed it anyway. She grinned in excitement. "Yeah! It's a little hilarious and so weird. I keep wanting to tell someone, but haven't had the opportunity!"

Al opened up the small bag of potato chips in his lunch and began to munch them like movie popcorn. "Go ahead."

"Okay, so-" she had a short giggle attack. "Last Monday morning- or was it Tuesday morning?- my alarm went off, of course. I have one of those alarm clocks that are kinda loud and go 'BEEP BEEP BEEP' and would probably scare the heck out of people if they weren't used to it. But I am. And I always have it in the same place, so I just smack the button on the top and get out of bed."

Al silently laughed to himself, thrown off by her wild gestures and sound effects as she was telling the simple story. He wondered how come he'd never seen this part of her personality yet.

"So this is why it's so weird. That morning, when it went off, my hand didn't automatically go to my alarm clock. It smacked my _glasses _instead! _I tried to turn off my glasses._"

"Are you serious?" he said, clearly amused by her incredulity.

"As serious as the Joker! Wait, no that's wrong; I mean Batman. As serious as Batman!"

"Do you leave your glasses next to your alarm clock?"

"No, not anymore! My glasses are on my headboard. My alarm is all the way over here," she stretched exaggeratedly to the right, "and my glasses are all the way over here!" she reached up above her head. "How did I mix that up?!"

Al shrugged with a chuckle. "Brother is usually really out of it in the mornings, so I can imagine him doing the same thing."

"Doing what?" Ed said, appearing out of middair. Lily jumped in her seat from the scare, but neither brother noticed.

"Hit something else instead of the alarm clock in the morning."

"Hey! I wouldn't do that!" he protested as he sat down, letting his lunch tray clatter a little on the table.

"Really? I've seen you do worse because of your morning zombieness."

"Like what?"

"Pour juice onto your cereal instead of milk."

"You guys switched them in the fridge, and both the cartons look the same! That wasn't my fault!"

"But you ate it anyways!"

"Everything tastes the same in the morning! It doesn't matter!"

Their banter was interrupted by Lily's laughing. They looked over to see her with a hand over her mouth, trying to contain some of her giggles, but failing miserably. "I'm so glad I'm friends with you two," she managed to say eventually while trying to catch her breath.

"Not sure if I can say the same if you laugh at us so much," Ed said with a glare.

"So where were you?" Lily interrogated Ed suddenly with a small frown. Al rolled his eyes at her veering the conversation back to where it had begun.


	8. Chapter 8

**After I post next week's chapter, _8 weeks_ will have passed by since I started.**

**What have _you _done with your life during that?**

**HAPPY BELATED ULTIMATE PI DAY, ONE OF THE GREATEST HOLIDAYS EVER!**

**On with the story!**

* * *

John and Matt witnessed a rare occurrence: a teenager skipping around a school as if it was normal. ...Well, for them, it wasn't very rare, considering who the skipper was.

Lily grinned more as she bounded to the brothers with her well-practiced skip-run, gripping in her hands a few books.

"Guys, look what I got!~" she sing-songed as she sat down across from them. She set her small pile of books in front of her and spread them out to show all the covers.

"You're reading the _Fullmetal Alchemist_ manga?" Al asked as he looked at the books. She currently had volumes 2-4 with her.

"Re-reading," she corrected. "I read them first, then watched Brotherhood, then 2003, then the movies. Now I'm going through it all again."

"That show really did invade your life, huh?" Ed rolled his eyes.

Lily nodded, a little too enthusiastic. "I had been planning to do this far before I met you guys, and just got around to it when we visited the library yesterday."

"Maybe when you're done we can read them, Brother," Al directed first to Lily then to his sibling. "We haven't done it yet."

"Wait- WHAT?" she blurted. "You seriously haven't read them yet?"

"No..." both replied, glancing to each other awkwardly.

"What about Brotherhood?" They gave her the same face, irking her a bit. "I can't believe you two! This is your family history, and it's easily accessible, for crying out loud! Why am I still a bigger fan than both of you combined?!"

"Because you're-"

"Never mind, I don't want an answer from you, Ed," she interrupted. They both huffed silently.

"What's the difference between the books and anime?" Al asked, basically ignoring what happened right before.

"The odd one out, really, is the 2003 anime, even though it was finished first. It was made while Hiromu Arakawa was still writing, so they had less to go off of, so, especially around halfway, it veered off in a completely different direction than the manga. The manga was then finished, and then they made Brotherhood, which follows the exact same storyline as the books besides extremely minor details. They are the same franchise, but there are actually some fundamental differences between the animes, especially when it comes to the Homunculi, I think."

"But we know that the first show and movie are true, so do we have to see what happens in a different storyline?" John said, genuinely curious.

"I think so. We've all said it: it's most likely there are things that were changed when they made it, so it's not all fact. But it could be that there's truth in Brotherhood, too. And some of that you wouldn't know unless you read or watched. Or looked at the wiki, I guess."

"Good point."

"Like, for example, Xing isn't even mentioned in the first anime, but it plays an important part in the second."

"Xing?" both chorused.

"Amestris's version of Asia. It is home to some awesome characters." She smirked.

"Let us know when you're done, then, so we can check them out in the library," Al stated.

"Oh, no need for that." She did a shooing hand gesture. "I can give you them right after I read them, while they're still under my name. I mean, I already read the first last night."

"You trust that we won't lose them?"

Lily lightly shrugged. "I mean, maybe not let you take it home if you guys lose books easily, but I still find opportunities to read during school, so I'm sure you could too. During really slow days, I've read almost 3 whole ones in a row before."

"That works," Al agreed. "One of us can read the books, then pass them to the other, then give them back to you."

"If you promise you don't lose library books, I'm cool with it." Lily searched for where she left off in volume 3. "How many should I bring at a time? I'm sure you can read as fast, or maybe faster, than me."

The Elrics looked at each other, having a silent conversation. They then turned to her at the same time. "Bring 2."

"We'll see how that goes," Al continued. "If we can do more or less, we'll let you know."

"Okay!" She grinned, closing the deal. "I'll give them before school, and I expect them back after school."

* * *

"PAY ATTENTION!" Sensei snapped, scaring the Elrics out of wherever their minds had wandered.

"S-sorry, Sensei!" They both apologized, attempting to focus once again on their teacher.

The gray-haired man humphed in response and started slowly pacing in front of them again. "I will only give you these extra classes if you will not waste my time," he warned. "I might even start charging you for this."

"Yessir," Ed said quietly, embarrassed.

"Now, to wake you up, do 20 pushups!" he ordered. The boys yelled "Hai!" as they quickly dropped into position and did the exercise. The empty dojo (well, except for the three males) echoed their sounds of straining back at them. They slowly sat and crossed their legs again while they caught their breath.

"Since you did not want to tell me why you wanted extra sessions while the other students were around, will you tell me _now_, Edward?" Sensei asked, looking him in the eye as he sat down in front of them.

Ed fidgeted and glanced to Al, who also wasn't sure what to do. "It's a bit of a long story..."

"And I already know part of it, correct?" Sensei turned his attention to the younger brother. "I'm assuming this has to do with your ancestry."

They blinked in surprise at him, then glanced to each other again. Clear unease still was settled on Ed's face, but Al gulped his nervousness down and turned to the man.

"Yeah, it does have to do with it." He paused for a moment, choosing how to word it. The wise, expectant gaze of the teacher pushed him forward with the explanation. "We want to visit the place where the first Edward and Alphonse are from."

"You are going to Germany?!" Sensei blurted.

"N-not actual Germany, but it's a place similar to Germany, and it's hard to get to," Ed corrected.

"But we don't know how dangerous it is there, so we want to learn as much as we can for self-defense beforehand," Al finished.

Sensei lifted a hand to his chin as he considered their plan. "Are your parents coming with you?"

"Of course not," Ed said as he rolled his eyes. "My dad can't even fight a fly."

"Do you have enough money for food and shelter? Do you have any idea how transportation works? Can you self-sustain at your age there?"

The boys slowly felt themselves deflate. They hadn't even considered those things yet. (And they're considered smart?) "At the moment, we're still figuring out how to _get_ there."

"But you are certain you can get to your destination, one way or another?" Sensei asked seriously. Both boys nodded. They felt pretty confident they could figure out alchemy.

He studied their faces. "Are you 100% sure you want to do this?"

"Never been surer, sir." Ed smirked.

"We don't want to, we NEED to do this. The sooner, the better," Al replied.

Sensei gazed into their eyes. He had always considered them to be very determined in the things they do- they had stayed in his class for years, after all- but could see more resolve in them now than ever before. They could not be persuaded to do anything else than what they felt was right... Even if he did not know their full reasoning, he liked seeing them doing what they do and not letting anything stop them.

He smiled and chuckled a bit. "Well, I don't want you to die sooner than me, so let's get you ready for your journey, hm?" He groaned as he started standing up, and they leaped up after him, their faces plastered with big, bright grins.

"Thank you, Sensei!"

"Not just that, I don't want you to starve, either. I am willing to sponsor you, and help you with money necessary for your travels."

Both of their jaws dropped.

"As long as you are not planning to stay there longer than a few weeks," he added. Their expressions changed little.

"We can't take your money!" Al argued.

"I have plenty to give. I'd actually considered giving most of it to charities."

"Where'd you get that money?" Ed asked, befuddled.

"Does not matter. I will give you the minimum to live off of, as long as _you," _he emphasized, "do something for me."

"And what would that be?" Ed crossed with arms and raised his brow.

"Do your best to learn everything I can teach you before you leave, _and_ return safe and sound."

The boys looked to each other, and identical smiles slowly grew on both of their faces. "I think we can do that," they said at the same time as they turned to him.

"Good." Sensei gave them a final smile before straightening up and looking serious again. "Begin with sparring each other so I can identify your strengths and weaknesses." The Elrics turned to each other, bowed, and waited for the signal- "Begin!"

* * *

They gazed upon their large chalk circle on the ground, filled with geometrical shapes and a few latin words. It had been drawn, drawn, and redrawn until it was perfect.

"Al," John said with pride in his voice, "I think we've got it."

* * *

***totally freaking out noises* Dang, those boys work _fast._**

**I came up with this little idea for a related one-shot. While it's not necessary, I think it adds. (And it reminded me of an excrutiatingly important detail that I'd somehow forgotten!) And I finally gave the Fullmetal Alchemist and his brother some lines! :O How, may you ask? Find out.**

**I know it's probably difficult to imagine the Elric brothers (the _originals_, I mean) as elderly men, but just try to for this extra.**

* * *

"ACHOO!" Edward Elric, once the Fullmetal Alchemist, sneezed loudly and sniffled as he blinked the strange feeling away.

"Looks like you were mentioned again, Big Brother," Alphonse chuckled wheezily next to him.

"Shut up, you old fart." Ed slapped his sibling's forearm weakly. "At least it's not as often as when the shows were new and very popular. We couldn't even keep a conversation up because of all the sneezing."

They both stared at each other for a few seconds before they burst out laughing. They would've laughed for much longer if they weren't interrupted by their own coughing.

The younger blinked and smirked a bit. "Hey, Big Brother. Do you want to see who's talking about us?"

Ed shrugged in reply as they looked down to Earth from what they assumed was Heaven- they weren't bouncing around on the clouds as angels or anything, but Al had always said that "anywhere is heaven if I'm with you, Big Brother." (He later had to add his wife and kids to that statement.) They found that their eyes surrounded by wrinkles fell upon a pair of brothers that were very similar to themselves.

"It's those little twerps again," the elder grumbled.

"Ed, those are family. You can't call them twerps."

"I can if they are!" He squinted harder at the scene. "They're with that girl. The little FMA fanatic."

"I guess they're discussing something that has to do with us," Al assumed. He then turned to his brother. "And come on, Lily isn't THAT bad; not like the fans of comic books, _Star Wars, Star Trek, Harry Potter_... And at least she isn't like Winry and automail."

"The poor kids down there have their own Winry!" Ed shook his head in sympathy, then ran his fingers through his gray-white hair slowly. "I hope she doesn't have a weapon."

They saw the dark-haired girl suddenly reach over and hit one of the brothers with her paper-backed book. Al stretched his mouth into an amused grin at Ed's look of horror at witnessing that.

"...?" Ed suddenly leaned forward as he tried to listen to the conversation happening on Earth. He could faintly hear her angrily saying to the younger Elrics something about alchemy being dangerous. "No way!" he exclaimed. "I think they're planning to attempt a transmutation!"

Al pulled his brother back a bit to get him to relax. "Like all the other people these past few years? None of them succeeded, and none of them got hurt, Bro. There's only one way it'll work, and we found that out after we died."

"But these kids are smart, Al. They could figure it out during their lifetime." Ed directed his golden gaze to his brother. "We don't know what could happen if someone on this side of the Gate, whether or not they have Amestrian blood, actually did it right."

Alphonse frowned, getting where the worry was coming from. "Do you think they're more likely to cross over into our home world?" He looked back to the teenagers. "At least they wouldn't die, although it scares me what kind of toll they'd pay. Let's hope they get talked out of it."

"Like we were when we tried to bring Mom back?" Ed countered with a sarcastic comment, but it sounded more like deep remorse than anything. He secretly crossed his fingers as he watched the scene on Earth, wishing the world would take it easy on his great-great-grandsons.

* * *

**Get the first part? :D Cuz there's that gag in anime where a character sneezes when other characters talk about him/her... I'm stupid.**

**K bai!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Okay, before I let you to the chapter, please promise me... No one will riot against me. *sweat drop***

**I mean, I personally love how this story ends and wouldn't ever change it... But considering reactions from you guys, I think a few may not be as big fans of it.**

**On with the story, one last time!**

* * *

Lily blinked and smiled to herself as she noticed her friends in the next hall. She quickly turned to the left, almost running into some guy with earbuds, and bounced up to pull all of her hair out from under her backpack straps before moving quietly towards them.

John and Matt were currently having a conversation with a guy that she faintly recognized seeing on her way to classes. She waited for a break in their chatting before tapping on Matt's shoulder, making him jump and whip around to see what scared him.

"Oh, it's just you, Lily," he sighed in relief, and she giggled at the face he'd made.

"Sorry for being such a ninja." She glanced over to the stranger. "And sorry for interrupting, but, even though school hasn't started yet, I figured I could give you the books now instead of waiting for lunch." She dropped her shoulder down to swing her backpack around, and quickly went to work to get inside the big pocket to take out the volumes.

"You don't have to do that," Ed replied as he reached into his own bag. "We're just gonna return the ones we already have."

"What? But you barely started with the series!" Lily protested as the books they had borrowed overnight were shoved into her hands.

"We don't have any more time, and we figured if there was anything important from them, we can find out there."

Lily put on a confused look, knowing he was implying something, but for a second couldn't think of what. One heartbeat later, she suddenly figured it out and her eyes widened.

She dropped the books in her hand.

"...Don't tell me..." Lily whispered.

Al confirmed her thoughts with a serious nod.

"No. No. NO." She started repeating the word, not noticing anything like her dropped books, the worried stranger, and her fiddling with the hem of her shirt anxiously. "NO! You can't do this!"

"Lily, we are doing it!" Ed interrupted her, wagging a finger into her face. "You knew we would from the start!"

"Couldn't I just hope you _wouldn't_ in the end?" she pleaded. She then blinked as she remembered something. "Wait a minute... You never promised. You never promised! You guys said you would tell me your decision _forever_ ago, and you never did!" She jabbed her finger into the blond's face, reversing their positions. "I gave you _all_ the reasons to not go, and the _time_ to decide, but you guys always changed the subject before you would tell me _anything!_ You BUTT-HOLES!"

"You don't know _why_ we are doing this!"

"Because you never _told_ me!"

"Um, should I go?..." the guy the boys had been talking to before said weakly with a tap on Al's shoulder.

"No, it's fine. Hold on." Al stepped between his arguing brother and friend, and turned to the latter. "Look, school's about to start. We can tell you everything you want to know at lunch. Okay?"

He gave her a small comforting smile, but it did nothing to change the disappointed expression on her usually-cheerful face. In fact, it sank a bit lower instead. She opened her mouth like she wanted to say something, but nothing came out. The males regrouped as they walked away and awkwardly left her standing there, staring after them, her eyes threatening to produce tears.

A few seconds later, Lily was suddenly filled with anger again and she exploded at them from across the almost-empty hall. "It's because of _idiots_ like _you_ that women _live_ longer, ELRIC!"

* * *

During one of her last classes of the day, Lily went for a bathroom break. On her way back, her phone vibrated in her pocket. She warily looked around and found herself all alone in the hallway. She answered the call.

"Hello?"

_"Excuse me, is this Lily?"_

She furrowed her brows. Was there a British girl on the other end of the phone? "Yeah, who's this?"

_"Megan, John and Matt's younger sister."_

"Really?" She blinked. "...Hey, how'd you get my number?"

The girl ignored the question. _"I have something to ask you."_ Some weird muffled sound. _"Do you know if my brothers are planning to do something they shouldn't?"_

Lily's face dramatically changed to show her mixed emotions. "Yeah. They went home after lunch today to do it."

_"What?"_ Her accent rang through clearly on the word. _"But they don't miss school, ever! ...Well, maybe John every once in a while."_

"That's why. No one would expect them to be home, so they won't be interrupted." She said, feeling depressed again. (She was surprised she had actually focused in class most of the day, but at every opportunity available, her brain had returned to the stressful subject of the Elric brothers.)

_"Alright, I'm coming over there."_

"You're here?! In the US?" Lily felt the urge to look outside a window. "If you are, it's probably too late anyway."

Megan sounded determined. _"I don't care. If I can save my idiot brothers from whatever it is they're doing, I'll do it. We don't have the best relationship, but I still love them."_

She smiled a little. "Then go see if you can get them before they start."

_"What are they even doing? Do you know?"_

"It's a bit of a long story that I can tell you later. Right now, run!"

_"Got it!"_ She heard some noise, most likely Megan sprinting down the sidewalk (which made her raise an eyebrow; she didn't think the girl would literally _run_). Lily was about to hang up when she suddenly realized something.

"MEG! If you can, tell them that they have to pay the toll!"

_"Pay the toll?"_ She panted back. _"What the heck... is that... supposed to mean?"_

"It's a last chance at trying to stop them! I can't believe I never thought of it before!" Lily squeezed her fist really tight as she mentally yelled at herself for never reminding them of that crucial detail. "Tell me what happens!" She hung up the phone. She nervously ran her fingers through a chunk of her hair, now more worried than ever about the boys. She hoped they didn't leave yet.

* * *

"Okay, just to double-check, I'm going to say what each thing means- tell me if I say something wrong. Not understanding our circles correctly could be our downfall."

"Go ahead. I'll listen while I continue to write this."

"Okay." Ed took a deep breath and examined their circle for the gazillionth time. "First, we will activate the small circle inside, one for transmuting the wood in the floor, to be sure that we can actually do this before getting to the big circle. We will transmute the wood into the shape of the symbol we needed in the middle of the big circle that was too difficult to draw in chalk. From there, we will do the ...human... transmutation circle." Ed cringed at having to say it out loud. "We didn't get far in the manga, but we did study the wiki page extensively, so we know that transmuting ourselves will send us to the Gate."

"Remember that we're actually using alkahestry, Brother. It's possible that the source of the power of alkahestry is different from alchemy, so we might be able to do it without all that Gate junk."

"The suggestion to see the Brotherhood storyline helped us get this done so much faster." Ed chuckled nervously. "Despite all the hours looking at alchemy, it wasn't making as much sense, and might not even work since the Elric brothers and Mustang supposedly broke the link between worlds, alchemy-wise."

"Brother! Fix the marker!" Al had glanced over and noticed that one of the knives in the middle had fallen. He quickly returned his focus to the paper he was writing on.

"Right." Ed picked up the knife and stabbed it into the ground again, on the edge of the Xingese circle. "Are you sure it would be better to do long-distance style alkahestry? That seems like a bit of a complex technique to do for beginners."

Matt didn't even look up. "Do you really want to be standing in the middle of the big circle while trying to do the small one? I don't want to accidentally do both at the same time."

"True." Ed scooched back to the second alkahestry circle located a few feet from the big circle, and carefully filled in the chalk lines even more. "So yeah, transmute the wood in the middle. If that works, then we'll do the big one- based off the human transmutation circles in the shows, but tried to change a few aspects so they followed alkahestry rules more. Hopefully, this will slide for alkahestry and it will do the job."

He started explaining aloud the meaning of the symbols within the larger circle. Meanwhile, his brother had written the last words down.

"Done." Al dropped his pencil and picked up the piece of paper he'd been working on. "How's this look?"

His older brother stood up and walked over. He grabbed and read what was on the paper. He gave a nod of approval and signed the bottom, then placed it neatly on the table next to them.

The boys slowly walked over to and kneeled down at their circles. They turned to each other and silently sighed with a small smile.

"This is it. We're going to go find help for Ryan, and perhaps experience new cultures and have adventures."

"It's the kind of journey we've always wanted to do."

"Everything's perfect."

A few seconds of quiet.

"You have the money in your backpack, right? And emergency food?"

"Yeah. You have the stuff to sell in case we can't use the money there or need extra cash? And the extra clothes?"

"Yeah."

They sat there quietly, not really knowing what to say, or if they _should_ say anything.

Al's voice cracked as he broke the silence. "You know, there's the possibility we can die right here, right now... Or sometime in Amestris... And no one would be able to explain it."

"Or we could actually come back fine, but have nothing to show for it," Ed added softly.

"One of us could lose a limb."

"Or be stuck in a suit of armor." Both chuckled at that.

"Whatever happens... Do you think you'll have regrets?"

John paused for a moment. "I guess I might feel a bit of regret for a few things, but they wouldn't have changed where we are now. They're now in the past, anyway. We can't change what's already happened, but we can try to have an awesome future."

Al smirked. "That's the correct answer, _Al-che-mist_." He laughed at seeing his sibling roll his eyes. He then gazed down. "I don't really have any regrets, either... Except maybe the way we treated Lily. She was just trying to keep us safe."

John glanced at his phone's time. "Let's get this done now. Dad's gonna get here soon."

They placed their hands at the edge of their first circle. "In case something happens..." Matt elbowed his brother with a smile. "Know that I love you, Brother."

Ed grinned back. "Same."

* * *

**Just want to double-check you guys understand the circles. It's two small circles similar to May's long-range alkahestry, and one of them is within the larger circle that's supposed to get them to the other side. Think of the circles as... a thumb-print cookie with a chocolate kiss in the middle, then another chocolate kiss next to it on the table. XD (I don't know why I thought of that comparison.) The idea is that, while we can't use alchemy on our side of the Gate, it's possible we _can_ use the purification arts, so they're trying to make a different (but still similar) link between the worlds than the one created then destroyed in _Conqueror of Shamballa_.**

* * *

Megan ran faster than ever. Her mother was supposed to pick her up from the airport in a few hours, but she couldn't stand to wait that long, and tried to get a taxi instead. When she ran out of money, she was kicked to the curb by the taxi guy (that jerk) and, realizing she was left just several blocks away from her house, sprinted the rest of the way.

She finally turned into her street with a sigh of relief, and tried to catch her breath as she let the downhill motion of the road carry her down with less energy spent. She just had to make sure she didn't trip.

She knew the back door was usually left open, so she just whizzed through the gate into the backyard. Her breath caught in her throat when she noticed, however, that through the window of the door into the basement... she saw some blue light.

"_What?_" she whispered to herself as she cautiously stepped closer to the door. As she got close, she could hear some cheering when the light went away. Her eyes widened when she knew for sure it was her brothers yelling, and she flung herself to the doorknob and jiggled it. "Dang it, why did you have to lock it?!"

She attempted to turn the knob for a few more seconds before fumbling to her jeans pocket. When nothing was in there, she huffed and pulled a bobby pin out of her hair instead and jammed it into the keyhole, trying to pick the lock open.

She flinched when there was suddenly more light, brighter than before, yet at the same time more foreboding, filtering out the window. She went even faster, and started to also throw her body against the door in her attempts to open it. She realized they must have put the second lock on the door, too, that wasn't on the knob, so she would never be able to break in.

"John! Matt!" The light seemed to be more erratic and dangerous now. She had to yell over the staticky noises.

"Stop right now before you kill yourselves!"

It pulsed even brighter.

"YOU HAVE TO PAY THE TOLL!"

Then, the light quickly died down. And she could hear nothing.

* * *

The room glowed with the spectacular light jumping around their first ever transmutation. They grinned and closed their eyes as they imagined what they wanted to form in the wood. Visualizing the Dragon's Pulse or whatever, whether it existed or not, seemed to help. After a few seconds, the light faded and they could see what was in the middle of their circle. While it was a little wonky, they still managed to make the symbol they wanted. The brothers cheered at their success, especially on the first try, saying things like "That was awesome!" and "So cool! We are SO cool!"

By silent mutual agreement, they both quickly went to work to rub out the small circles so that no one else could use them after. They then crawled to the big circle.

"See you on the other side!" the Elric brothers stated to each other as they clapped their hands and activated the circle.

The light was blue and blinding this time. It looked like electricity zipping and zapping around the room. They didn't notice, but purple flashed every once in a while. The entrancing light was brighter, brighter, BRIGHTER!-

Suddenly, everything was black.

Then, everything was white.

* * *

The End

* * *

**You guys don't know how thrilling it was to finally write those last two sentences!~ When I started this fic, I only knew how it would start and how it would end. Just like that. This story may have been a bit rushed, but just to be able to say this is _done _makes me not care so much anymore!**

**Thanks for sticking around. I know all of you have plenty of imagination, so now you are allowed to take the imaginary sequel wherever you want it! Did the boys really make it to Amestris? What is modern Amestris like? What does Lily do? Will they find a way back home after? Will it be too late for Ryan? Will they become heroes in the FMA community? There's so many ways this can go, and I didn't want to take just one, so now there's the freedom for you to explore all of them in your own mind. :3**

**By the way, this is the paper Al had written before they attempted the transmutations. K bai!**

* * *

_Dear Mom and Dad,_

_We are most likely now somewhere where you can't follow- or, at least, it would be very difficult to do so._

_Sorry we didn't tell you we were leaving, but we expect it to be a relatively short trip with an easy return, and it would've been hard to try to explain everything._

_The only person that knows the full story now is our friend Lily. You know, the one with lots of hair and glasses that came to the house once or twice? She could try to explain everything to you, but be prepared to be sitting for a long time; it's quite a lot to recollect._

_We love you guys, and promise we'll try to stay out of trouble._

_Matt Alphonse Elric_

_John Edward Elric_


	10. Chapter 10 (AN)

**Okay! Okay! I can just see (and ****_feel_****) all of your disappointed faces through the screen and it makes me feel aaaaaaaaaaaaaagghhhhhhhhhI'msorrrryyyyyyyyyy ;_;**

**I know it's stupid, but the thing is... I kinda have a thing against sequels. ._. (Well, for you guys it'd probs be more like me just _continuing the freaking story_, but to me it's a sequel.) It's because they're usually not as good as the originals. For example, I like the first books for ****_Percy Jackson _****and****_ The Kane Chronicles_**** (give Sadie and Carter some luv) the most. Same with ****_Monsters, Inc._**** (Not that I don't like University, it's just not my favorite.) I particularly love the ending to the original****_ Monsters, Inc._**** I kinda attempted at something similar myself, but, clearly, that wasn't successful. *sweat drop***

**Like I said before, there's different ways this could go, depending on how cruel you like to be to characters. So, I have an idea as to what I could do.**

**Maybe I can make something similar to BelloftheSea's "ABNE Infinite Possibilities" (all of her work is so good!). I'd focus more on ****one**** turn of events, but every once in a while also explore a little in one of the ****_other_**** alternates. I think I'd call it "Discoveries" or "Different Theories", unless I find something better. (Or I can just add the new chapters to this fic and keep it under the title "Family History".)**

**There's a catch to this, though. The thing is that, basically since the start of the month, we've been preparing to move. Things have been a little crazy, and will continue to be. I don't know for sure when we'll be totally settled, but I'm guessing in early June. (I know, a long time, but our situation's a little... eh... complicated.) That's going to cause me to have less time to work and take longer to get something pooped out, besides the usual excuse of writer's block (which is a serious problem that we need to find a cure for).**

**Also, I have this thing where it's difficult to finish my work. (That's why I wanted to guarantee I'd finish Family History before I put it up.) I mean, why else would my profile contain a bunch of one-shots instead of chapter fics? So, most likely, if I take on this project, there won't be an ending.**

**(I realize I've been saying "thing" a lot. And using a lot of parentheses.)**

**Do you still want this? Huh? HUH?!**

**If you guys still say 'yes', then just give me a bit so I can sort out my ideas and get the time to write them.**

**Thank you! :3 K bai!**


	11. Chapter 11 (AN)

**Wassap, ma homies?! :D**

**The awaited sequel "Visiting Homeland" is now online, though it's just the first chapter. XD**

**I wanna thank everyone who even glanced at this story, and even more so to those who followed, favorited, and reviewed. That really meant a lot to me. Those last two reviews were particularly flattering. XD (A little more flattery than I even deserve, in my opinion, though a few of the compliments I actually agreed with... *blush*)**

**BUT (hehe, butt) I leave a warning before you go check it out.**

**If you liked the ending to "Family History"... I don't suggest you read the sequel.**** I don't wanna disappoint you if it isn't as good as what you were hoping for. ;-;**

**Welp, that's all, folks! *chomps into carrot, then spits it out* *chomps into mushroom instead, and noms happily because edible fungi are good XD***

**Happy Summer Break! K bai!**


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